Amanda Zurawski, one of five women suing Texas for denying them an abortion while facing pregnancy complications, offered a scorching rebuke of Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn (R-Texas) at a Senate hearing Wednesday, saying she nearly “died on their watch.”
Zurawski, four other women and two doctors filed a lawsuit in state court last month against Texas, seeking to clarify the medical emergency exceptions under the state’s six week abortion ban. Zurawski, who lives in Austin, was diagnosed with an “incompetent cervix,” according to the suit, and was told her baby would not survive. The condition occurs when the cervix ruptures prematurely and is a common cause of late miscarriages.
Since her baby still had a heartbeat, Zurawski was told there was no other care the hospital could provide.
She eventually went septic, and the hospital finally agreed that she was ill enough to induce labor. She delivered her child, who passed away.
“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 paralyzing,” Zurawski said at a Senate hearing about a ruling from a federal judge in Texas that attempted to block to sale of a popular abortion pill, mifepristone. “On top of that, I am still struggling to have children.”
Zurawski took aim at Cruz and Cornyn, arguing the senators supported the policy that kept her from receiving an abortion.
“I wanted to address my senators, Cruz and Cornyn, neither of whom, regrettably, are in the room right now. I would like for them to know that what happened to me… it’s a direct result of the policies that they support,” Zurawski said. “I nearly died on their watch… as a result of what happened to me, I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future.”
Both Cruz and Cornyn sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which held the hearing on Wednesday morning. The senators attended the hearing but were not in the room when Zurawski addressed them.
Cornyn addressed Zurawski’s case in questioning of witnesses on the panel, saying if medical experts thought her doctors violated the standard of care, it would give rise to a case for medical malpractice. He also said it was unlikely that a national standard for abortions would pass through the Senate.
Cruz used his time to blast Democratic positions on abortion, arguing they are “radical” and want “unelected judges” to set national abortion standards. He did not address Zurawski’s case.
Texas’s six week abortion ban took effect in September 2021, making it the first state to enact a near-total ban on the practice.