Five Years After SB 8, the Patients Who Sued Texas Say It's Only Gotten Worse
HOUSTON, TX –– Today, Amanda Zurawski and Kaitlyn Kash, former plaintiffs in the landmark Zurawski v. Texas lawsuit joined State Senator Nathan Johnson on a panel to discuss what’s next in the fight for abortion access across the Lone Star State.
The roundtable comes days ahead of the five year anniversary of Texas Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), which banned abortion after approximately six weeks of pregnancy – before many people know they are pregnant.
“As a Senator, I look at what the Attorney General and the Governor are doing, and how they have taken Texas laws, and used them as instruments of terror, intimidation, and harassment,” said State Senator Nathan Johnson, who represents almost a million people in Senate District 16. “The place we are at right now is that a mean and terrifying attitude from elected officials is replacing medical judgement. They need to stay out of the medical decisions and stay out of the personal lives of families. Until we're able to change the narrative and be able to change the way people think about reproductive care, largely through telling stories, we're going to have physicians and hospitals that are afraid to provide the care that right now they legally can provide.”
“After my daughter was born, I needed a D&C because my placenta wouldn’t come out. It took an hour and 49 minutes. I almost bled out and needed a blood transfusion. My baby’s heart was beating on my husband’s chest while I was being rushed off to an OR where I needed a lifesaving procedure that is also used in abortions, but that machine was locked up,” said Kaitlyn Kash, a mother from Austin who joined the 2023 lawsuit after struggling to access care for a miscarriage and pregnancy complications. “That's why we're here today. We're going to keep talking about the impacts of abortion bans and telling our stories. Yes, abortion is healthcare, but abortion is also a procedure. And the fact that we've let anti-aboriton extremists and politicians define this word to be something that is immoral and bad is now impacting all of our healthcare.”
“I’m continuously shocked by people outside of Texas who hear my story and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize it was that bad. I didn’t realize this was really happening.’ Then there are people in Texas who hear my story and say, ‘How can that happen in my backyard,” said Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in Zurawski v. Texas, who sued the state after being denied emergency abortion care in 2022. “I don’t want what happened to me, or to Kaitlyn, or to anyone in this community who needed care to happen to anyone else. But telling our stories, and spotlighting ongoing cases, is what it takes for people to start putting the pieces together. Let’s prevent women and families from having to go through what we went through by continuing to talk about this, explaining what these laws look like in practice, and how they affect us in real life.”
You can watch the panel here. If you are interested in speaking with any of the participants in the event, or learning more about Free & Just, please contact kelly@freeandjust.us.
###
Free & Just is fighting to stop attacks on reproductive freedom and rights. We’re working with people across the country to share real stories to show the devastating consequences of attacks on our reproductive freedom. We all deserve the right to control our bodies and lives. That’s why we’re sharing our stories, raising our voices, and fighting for our future.