Abortion Bans Are Killing Texas Women, And The Supreme Court Shrugs

The legal and moral crisis in Texas healthcare.

Today, in the dystopian lands of America, the United States Supreme Court continues to chip away at the rights of women. Their latest decision leaves millions of women in Texas in a dangerous position, where their health, autonomy, and even lives are jeopardized by archaic laws that put ideology over human well-being.

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Biden administration, which sought to challenge Texas’ draconian abortion ban. The case revolved around the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care, including abortions when a pregnant person’s life or health is at risk.

Texas argued that its state ban should supersede this federal mandate, leaving doctors caught in a web of legal uncertainty and terrified of facing criminal charges for providing life-saving care. By refusing to intervene, the Court left this dangerous ambiguity in place, ensuring that countless women will continue to be denied critical medical treatment in a state that criminalizes nearly all abortions.

This comes on the heels of the news that the rate of maternal deaths in Texas increased 56% from 2019 to 2022, compared with just 11% nationwide during the same time.

Women are dying in Texas right now. Women in Texas are dying because of the draconian abortion ban, and the Supreme Court said, “Let them die.”

Here is what Ken Paxton had to say:

Wrap your head around this for a moment.

The Supreme Court said doctors do not have to intervene if the woman’s life is at risk. Then Ken Paxton said, “No Texas doctor should be forced to violate his or her conscience or the law just to do their job.”

Do no harm? Allowing women to die is harm.

Perhaps Ken Paxton meant, “No Texas doctor should violate the law just to do their job.”

During the Kata Cox saga, Ken Paxton threatened doctors with $100k fines and life in prison if they gave Cox an abortion, which would have saved her life. Fortunately, Cox could flee Texas and receive the healthcare she needed in another state. Unfortunately, we know from the sharp rise in the maternal mortality rate that many other Texas women didn’t make it out of Texas.

In Texas, women cannot receive abortion care if their life is at risk. They can’t get it in cases of rape and incest. Not at all. Because the people in our government said their religion isn’t okay with it.

I wish I could tell you that’s the only thing that happened today.

The Supreme Court also declined to hear an appeal from an Alabama fertility clinic frozen embryo case.

The Alabama Supreme Court had ruled that frozen embryos are considered “children” under state law, allowing the lawsuit to move forward. This decision has a direct impact on the legal landscape for IVF. This is just one more assault on reproductive rights.

We already know from the far-right Abolition Abortion movement these fundamentalists want to ban IVF.

Far-right conservatives are sowing misinformation that inaccurately characterizes IUDs, emergency contraception, and even birth-control pills as causing abortions.

They’re coming for all of it. They want to strip women away of all of their bodily autonomy.

Related: Earlier this year, a report was published that found Texas had over 26K rape-related pregnancies, the most in the nation.

Women need to know what’s happening because way too many people in Texas are A-political.

You and I are keenly aware of what the Republicans are doing in Texas. Unfortunately, there are way too many people who “don’t pay attention to politics.”

Today was the last day to get registered to vote, so if they aren’t registered by now, they’re shit out of luck. From now until November 5, we must ensure everyone makes it to the polls. That’s only 29 days.

If you haven’t already started volunteering with your local candidates or parties, now is the time. Early voting begins in 14 days, so make a plan to vote.

Tell every single person you know that in Texas, women cannot receive abortion care if their life is at risk. They can’t get it in cases of rape and incest. Not at all. And the ONLY way to change that is the ballot box.

More women are dying in childbirth in Texas than in North Korea, Lybia, and Syria.

Dear Texas women,

Your life means nothing to the Republicans in charge. For them, you’re only livestock—valued only for your ability to produce, while your rights, your autonomy, and your health are disregarded. They treat you like cattle, controlling your reproductive choices without concern for the risks you face, whether it’s your physical safety, your mental health, or your future. In their eyes, you exist solely to fulfill their vision of motherhood, with no consideration of the trauma, danger, or pain they impose.

The fight for our rights is not just about today or even this election cycle—it’s about every day from now on.

It’s about reclaiming the autonomy that has been stripped away, inch by inch. The Texas Republican agenda wants to silence us, control us, and diminish our worth to nothing more than reproductive vessels. But Texas women are more than that. Texas women are daughters, mothers, workers, fighters, and advocates. Texas women deserve to be heard.

And so, we will rise, resist, and fight for our future—because the ballot is our power, and we will wield it. Now is the time to stand together, mobilize, and demand a future where we are in control of our bodies and destinies. The stakes have never been higher.

• October 21: First day to early vote.

• October 25: Last day to apply for a mail-in ballot.

• November 1: Last day to early vote.

• November 5: Election day!

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