A woman suing the state of Texas after she was denied an abortion has told a Senate hearing that she “nearly died” because of the policies supported by Senator Ted Cruz and Senator John Cornyn.
Amanda Zurawski is one of five women who have filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas over its abortion laws. The women claim they experienced pain and suffering because they were denied abortions when they faced emergency complications during pregnancy.
Zurawski was diagnosed with an “incompetent cervix” and had been told her baby would not survive. She was forced to carry her non-viable pregnancy and went into septic shock because she was not provided with abortion care.
“Because I wasn’t permitted to have an abortion and the trauma and the PTSD and the depression that I have dealt with in the eight months since this happened to me is paralysing,” she said. “On top of that, I am still struggling to have children.”
“I wanted to address my senators, Cruz and Cornyn, neither of whom regrettably are in the room right now, but I would like for them to know that what happened to me I think most people in this room would agree was horrific. But it’s a direct result of the policies that they support,” Zurawski said.
“I nearly died on their watch, and furthermore, as a result of what happened to me, I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future.”
Zurawski said she was concerned about women who are not as lucky as her, or women without adequate support networks and healthcare.
“What happened to me was horrible but I am one of many and quite frankly I’m lucky that I have a husband that could take me to the hospital, I don’t have other children that I had to worry about finding healthcare for, I have a job that was understanding that allowed me to grieve for 3 days as I waited to almost die,” she said.
“What about all the women that don’t have those same opportunities, that don’t have access to healthcare, that don’t have health insurance, that don’t have a partner. What about them?”