The Texas abortion ban, known as Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), went into effect on September 1st, 2021. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Texas is considered a “hostile” state for abortion, there are civil and criminal penalties if a known abortion is performed. It bans abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy however, most women do not know that they are pregnant at 6 weeks. This ban happened nine months before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the United States Supreme Court.
Roe v. Wade was the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in the United States. The case was originally brought by Norma McCorvey to the Supreme Court, she went by the name Jane Roe. In 1969, McCorvey became pregnant with her third child, but she lived in Texas and was unable to get an abortion because at the time it was illegal in the state unless necessary to save the mothers life. McCorvey’s lawyers, (2 women) filed a lawsuit on her behalf saying that the Texas abortion laws were unconstitutional. In 2022, the overturn of Roe v. Wade ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion and allowing the regulation of abortion up to individual states.
In January 1973, the Supreme Court issued a 7-2 decision, ruling in McCorvey’s favor. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment gives women a right to privacy, which protected their right to abortion. The Fourteenth Amendment states, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
49 years later the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization casw. There was a Mississippi law that banned most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law was challenged because it went against the protections set by Roe v. Wade which allowed abortions up to 24 weeks. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was Mississippi’s only abortion clinic at the time and in 2018, they sued Thomas E. Dobbs, a state health officer with the Mississippi State Department of Health in March 2018.
Arguments were held in the Supreme Court in December 2021, in June 2022 there was a 6-3 vote ruling that abortion is neither a constitutional or a basic right that is necessary for a free and fair society. They based this idea on a past case, Palko v. Connecticut, which talked about which rights are essential to “ordered liberty”, the rights people need to live freely under the law. The court decided abortion does not fall into that category.
Studies show that Black women experience unequally higher maternal mortality rates, including deaths related to abortion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women are more likely to die from pregnancy- related complications, included those related to abortions.
According to the Courier DFW, Texas doctors say, “We’ve Got to Stop This”, after 3 healthy women die due to miscarriage complications because they were not able to get abortions in the state. Doctors who perform abortions face up to 99 years in jail, the stripping of their medical license and charged with paying a $100,000 fine. The Texas’ maternal mortality committee is in charge of looking at the deaths and almost deaths of pregnant women; many people have not been pleased with the committee since 2021. Maternal deaths increased in 2020 and 2021; every female racial group saw an increase in their chances of dying except white women.
Kate Cox was denied emergency abortion care by the Texas Supreme Court despite receiving a diagnosis that indicated that the fetus was unhealthy and if the pregnancy continued her life and her ability to carry future pregnancies to full term was in danger. Her pregnancy was diagnosed with Trisomy18 which has no chance of survival; forcing her to travel out of state to get the help she needed. Cox v. Texas was the first case since the overturning of Roe v. Wade filed on behalf of a pregnant woman seeking abortion care.
The 3 women who passed away are Neveah Crain who was only 18, she died from a sepsis infection, she was 6 months pregnant with a girl who she’d plan to name Lillian. She was sent home by 2 hospitals after a misdiagnosis and by the time she got to the third one, it was too late. Josseli Barnica, was 28, and she also died of sepsis. Barnica was left with her uterus open and exposed to bacteria. She was 17 weeks pregnant. Porsha Negumezi was 35, she passed away due to hemorrhaging. Her miscarriage required her to have two blood transfusions. Many doctors are angry, saying those three lives could have been saved because those women were healthy.
No woman deserves to go through this, the abortion ban makes it difficult for a woman to make a decision about her body. Not all women have the resources to travel out of state for help. There is much more work that needs to be done to make sure women have the freedom and support to make the best choices for themselves and their families.
