Texas Patients and Advocates Warn: New 12/4 GOP Abortion Law Is Putting Women at Risk
WATCH THE EVENT HERE
TEXAS –– Today, patient storytellers and advocates joined Free & Just to spotlight how Republican attacks on abortion care are making pregnancy more dangerous across Texas. The event also honored the life of San Antonio mother and wife, Tierra Walker, who died of complications from preeclampsia after being denied care under the abortion ban.
On December 4, 2025, a new anti-abortion Texas law (HB 7) takes effect, further targeting medication abortion in the state.
Texas has imposed more abortion restrictions than almost any other state, and now extremist GOP lawmakers are going even further. Republicans' latest attack targets medication abortion, by cracking down on how patients can access abortion medication and encouraging private citizens to sue Texans who receive or provide care.
At the event patient storytellers and advocates honored Tierra Walker and shared how the latest attacks on reproductive freedom harm women and families in Texas and across the country.
“I was forced to flee my home state to access abortion care after my very wanted, long-awaited IVF pregnancy was given a fatal fetal diagnosis at my anatomy scan. In the middle of grief, shock, and rising medical risks to myself, I had to pack a bag, book a hotel, arrange a rental car, and get on a flight. Not because I wanted to, but because I had no other choice, because the care I needed and the autonomy I deserved were taken away from me by politicians who will never meet the families that they harm,” said Taylor Edwards, a former plaintiff in Zurawski v. Texas. “Laws like the one taking effect tomorrow do not stop abortions. They stop safe abortions. They punish those of us navigating wanted pregnancies. They terrorize families. They take choices that should only belong to us and make them nearly impossible to reach. I believe that we deserve better. We deserve autonomy, and we deserve the unquestioned right to make decisions about our own bodies.”
“When physicians feel unable to counsel patients honestly, and when hospitals fear legal consequences for providing evidence-based care, the result is a system that fails people in the moments when they need help the most. No patient should ever have to cross state lines to receive essential health care. Yet this is the reality we face in Texas, where legislative barriers and widespread fear have made pregnancy and pregnancy complications far more dangerous than they need to be,” said Uma Reddy, a fourth-year medical student in Texas pursuing Adolescent Medicine. “As a future Pediatric Adolescent Medicine physician, and as someone who hopes to build a career serving young people in Texas, I worry about the message this new law sends to the next generation. It tells them that their safety is negotiable, that their autonomy is conditional, and that their medical needs are less important than political pressure. I believe Texas can do better than this. Our patients deserve better than this.”
“I contribute the access that I had to abortion medication to saving my life. No person should have to go through the mental distress of what you have to do to get access to abortion medication. Without these medications, who knows how many more people we will lose while having these bans in place. Unfortunately, if we do not make a change, it will continue to get worse. We should not be losing people like we lost Tierra,” said Melanie Shipley, a patient storyteller who received medication abortion care.
“Tierra is a black woman navigating a system that already fails black women at much higher rates, and Texas's abortion bans are magnifying the systemic existing inequality. I don't know what it is like to be a black woman in Texas, but I do know what it is like to be a white woman with healthcare, with an advanced degree and a professional career in maternal and infant health. And despite all of my privilege, I have had to fight like hell to get the healthcare that I need,” said Kaitlyn Kash, a former plaintiff in Zurawski v. Texas. “HB 7 will be the fourth cruel and harmful law that says that the government knows how to provide healthcare better than our doctors — that the government knows how to provide or what kind of healthcare we need more than we do and what our own bodies are telling us. Someone is already pregnant right now, who is going to need medication abortion. Someone is already pregnant right now, whose life will be forever changed tomorrow when a new law goes into effect.”
You can watch the event here. If you are interested in speaking with any of the participants at the event, please contact malachi@freeandjust.us.
This week, Free & Just released a NEW Fact Sheet: President Trump and Extreme Republican Lawmakers are Making Pregnancy More Dangerous for Texans:
Abortion bans are killing women and at least four women have died as a result of Texas’ abortion ban – and those are just the deaths we know of.
Texas’ strict abortion bans have driven medical professionals and trainees away, leaving massive gaps of care for pregnant women within the state.
As a result of abortion laws in Texas, thousands of patients are frequently forced to travel out of state to access essential abortion care.
Texas lawmakers have recently doubled down on efforts to restrict medication abortion via telehealth, which 2,800 Texans rely on every month to access abortion care.
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