Texas Republicans Really Enjoy Killing Women

Shocking.

When Republican states began passing anti-abortion legislation, medical professionals sounded the alarm. They explained that even though the laws allegedly had exceptions for the lives of the mothers, they were too ambiguous. No state has proven this to be true quite like the good ol’ state of Texas.

In Texas, a doctor can be criminally prosecuted for terminating a patient’s pregnancy. They face possible imprisonment of up to 99 years, loss of their medical licenses, and $100,000 in fines.

The state has an exception for abortions if there’s a risk of “substantial impairment of a major bodily function” or if the pregnancy is threatening the woman’s life. Even with those exceptions women are struggling to receive care and dying (as predicted). That’s because the laws do not clearly define an emergency, leaving doctors to worry that if they act too soon they could go to prison.

Criminal State Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit after President Joe Biden’s administration ordered all states to abide by the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) by providing abortions if they are necessary to stabilize a patient while they’re receiving emergency care. However, in 2023, Paxton sued to prevent Kate Cox, a pregnant woman with a fatal fetal abnormality, from obtaining an abortion AFTER a court sided with her. The Texas Supreme Court sided with Paxton, but Cox had already received care in another state.

So, to recap, Texas has an exception for the life of the mother but when a woman fought to have an abortion under that exception, the state was like, “Nah.”

Cox was lucky. She lived. Sadly, that was not the case for Nevaeh Crain and Josseli Barnica. Both of those women died because their miscarriages went untreated after they tried to get the care they needed.

Republicans Have Put My Life In Danger

After their deaths became public, more than 100 Texas OB-GYNs recently signed a public letter imploring lawmakers to make changes to the law. They stated that the deaths of Nevaeh and Josseli “were likely preventable” but that the “nature of the strict abortion ban in Texas does not allow [them] as medical professionals to do [their] jobs.” Specifically, “the law does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving care they need and threatens physicians…”

Bills were recently filed in the state’s congressional chambers to create new exceptions to the law. They’d allow doctors to perform abortions to preserve the physical or mental health of a patient, or when the fetus has a fatal abnormality.

The problem? Democrats are the ones pushing for the exceptions.

Republicans in Texas are still firmly on board with the plan to kill as many women as possible. Instead of joining Democrats and trying to fix the law that DOCTORS are telling them is broken, they have argued that physicians are to blame for the deaths.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, a former attorney with no medical training and an author of one of the state’s abortion bans, wrote an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle saying the medical emergency exception in the law is totally fine. According to the senator, it’s cool because the law uses the same language as abortion laws 200 years ago. You know, that wonderful time when women were regularly getting the added gifts of sepsis and death with their new babies. Congratulations to them!

Hughes was basically like, “It’s cool bruh, the definition is from 1800 and we wouldn’t want to confuse these highly educated medical professionals by like updating it.” I wish I were joking.

When ProPublica provided Hughes with various medical scenarios asking him how those professionals should apply the law, he refused to answer. It’s almost like some dude bro with no medical training shouldn’t write laws about maternal care.

Meanwhile, Paxton wants everyone to know he’s ready to prosecute any doctor who dares to provide women with lifesaving care. I’m sure that’s going to end well.