By Nadia Johnson
Happy Women’s History Month to all of my female readers. This is the month that allows us to look back on how far we have come in achieving equal rights and equal treatment under the law in this country. However, with the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade, women’s health and reproductive freedoms have been greatly diminished.
It is on, that note that I would love to introduce you to five women who in the state of Texas were denied abortions even though their lives were at state. Since the recent overturning of Roe vs. Wade, states mostly in the deep south have passed ever increasing bans on abortions. Some states even passed an outright ban on all abortions removing the exceptions for rape, incest, and endanger of the mother’s live. Then there are states like Texas that passed a six week ban on abortions and that if a woman seeks to get an abortion after this time period they can be charged with a second – degree felony. This means that any doctor who knowingly performs, induces, or even attempts an abortion will be charge. The charge however, goes up to first degree felony if the abortion is successfully performed. This means that according to the current Texas Penal Code, the punishment for a first -degree penalty could be up to life in prison and a fine up to $10,000. The penalty for a second – degree felony is up to 20 years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.
Now if those facts aren’t enough to make you mad. Where are two other facts that will send your blood boiling. This new abortion ban in Texas shows just how little the government knows about women’s reproductive systems and it shows how our government has been hijacked by radical evangelists who want to takes us back to the fifties’.
Ashley Brandt, Lauren Hall, Lauren Miller, Anna Zargarian and Amanda Zurawski find themselves on the brink of making history. These women have decided to sue the state of Texas over their current abortion ban that nearly cost them their lives. Why is this case so unique? The reason why is because this is the first time that women and not an advocacy group or doctors have taken legal action since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
Each of these women have made harrowing trips to other states in order to save their lives, reproduction functions. Their lawsuits states that all of the women where happy when they found out that they were pregnant, but they where denied serves when they found out that their pregnancies were at high risk.
Amanda is a 35-year-old from Austin was diagnosed with an incomplete cervix. This means that when the cervical tissue weakness and prematurely dilates the cervix. She was at seventeen weeks along in her pregnancy when she was told by doctors that her baby would not survive, according to her statement in the lawsuit. She was told by doctors that under Texas abortion law’s there was nothing they could do for her because cardiac activity still could be detected. It was not until she developed sepsis that she was induced so she could deliver the baby. After which she again developed sepsis and as a result s developed so much scared tissue that one of her fallopian tubes is permanently closed due to the infections.
Lauren Hall is another one of the women in the lawsuit. The 28-year-old from outside Dallas was told that her baby would not survive after a scan revealed that the fetus had developed an anencephaly, which is a condition in which the baby does not develop a skull and has a severely underdeveloped brain. Her maternal – fetus medicine specialist informed her that to continue with the pregnancy would lead to hemorrhage or per- term birth. Since she could not have the abortion in Texas she traveled to Washington state to have the procedure. The third women in the lawsuit is Lauren Miller a 35 -year-old from Dallas, who learned the exciting news that she was carrying twins. However, when she received a scan of her babies at 12 weeks she was informed that one of her twins had developed trisomy18, which is a chromosomal condition that results in severe abnormalities and developments delays. According to the lawsuit, she had to travel to Colorado to receive a selective fetal reduction. This means that she aborted the fetus with the chromosomal condition and continued her pregnancy with the other twin.
Ms. Brandt is the fourth women in the lawsuit. She is a 31-year-old from Dallas, Texas who learned that she was pregnant in May of 2022 with twin. Sadly, when she received a scan of the twins, it revealed that one had developed a condition known as acrania, which means that the fetus does not develop a skull. After being told the risks the pregnancy posed to her life, she too ended up going to Colorado to get an abortion. The final women in the lawsuit is Ms. Zargarian, a 33 year – old women from Austin. It was at 19 weeks into her pregnant that she was diagnosed with preterm premature rupture of the membranes. This condition means that the membranes breaks before a woman goes into labor. This put her at high risk for both sepsis and hemorrhaging if she continued with the pregnancy. Since she could not obtain an abortion she too had to go to Colorado and get an abortion.
As a woman, I am horrified that these women had to go through this all because people want to ram their beliefs down some else’s throat. How many women will have to either die from being forced to carry a baby that is by all means not going to be able to survive outside the mother’s womb. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that a woman should have total freedom when it comes to what she can and can’t do with her own body. Whether or not it puts her life at risk. For my motto it is none of our business, but theirs’s and the doctors.
