“I Have Lived Through That Punishment” – Texas Women Who Fled Abortion Ban for Care Highlight New Reporting on Cruz’s Responsibility
AUSTIN, Texas – Today Lauren Miller and Dr. Austin Dennard, forced to flee their home state of Texas for necessary reproductive care, reacted to new reporting on how Ted Cruz made Texas’ extreme and dangerous abortion ban possible.
As The Guardian reported this week, Ted Cruz was a “key player in transforming the judiciary to pave the way for Dobbs and enable his own state” to ban abortion.
“Every single medical professional we spoke with told us that the medical care I needed was illegal in Texas. I simply wasn't dead enough for an abortion in Texas, and at the end of the day the life of our viable twin didn't matter. Ted Cruz is the reason for that,” said Lauren Miller.
“Because of Texas’ abortion bans, I felt like my pregnancy wasn't even my own. I felt like it belonged to the state – because in Texas I had no choice. Our leaders didn't trust that I knew what was best for my body and my family. Leaders like Ted Cruz, who did everything in his power to enact this abortion ban. And thanks to The Guardian's report this week, now we know more about how Cruz carefully calculated his anti-choice agenda, one that has left countless women and their families suffering in our state,” said Dr. Austin Dennard.
Background:
Both The Guardian and New York Magazine this week have scrutinized Ted Cruz’s career-long efforts and direct hand in the fall of Roe v. Wade and the Texas abortion ban endangering women across our state.
As the Dallas Morning News has reported, Cruz “did not attend” when Lauren Miller testified before his subcommittee and shared that: “My life was in danger. So was the life of my now-healthy son. Eighteen months later and I still wake up in a cold sweat terrified by nightmares of being hunted down.”
Dr. Austin Dennard is a Dallas-based OB/GYN forced to flee Texas for lifesaving reproductive care, and has made clear “Ted Cruz wanted me to wait until that baby died in my womb or died in my arms. I just can’t stay silent anymore.”
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