AUSTIN, Texas – The Austin American-Statesman reports the tragic, preventable deaths of two Texas women are shining a renewed light on Ted Cruz’s abortion ban.

More than 100 Texas OB/GYNs have signed a letter calling out the danger Texas’ abortion laws pose to women and families. On Tuesday Texans have the opportunity to fire Ted Cruz and elect a senator who will restore reproductive freedom.

Austin American-Statesman: OB-GYNs, Democrats renew calls to change Texas abortion ban after pregnant women's deaths

By Bayliss Wagner

• Pre-election reports on two Texas women dying after being denied abortions have led to further debate and finger-pointing between abortion rights supporters and foes, highlighting divides in the state's tight U.S. Senate race and renewing calls for change to its near-total abortion ban.

• On Sunday, 111 Texas OB-GYNs signed a letter pushing back against [anti-abortion groups’] interpretation [of Texas’ law].

• "The nature of the strict abortion ban in Texas does not allow us as medical professionals to do our jobs," the letter states. "The law does not allow Texas women to get the lifesaving care they need and threatens physicians with life imprisonment and loss of licensure for doing what is often medically necessary for the patient’s health and future fertility."

• The physicians' statement calls for changes to state laws and urges elected officials in Texas to "do something to make sure this never happens again."

• U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, whose campaign to unseat Cruz has focused on abortion rights, said the incumbent is “singularly responsible for what’s happening in our state” in a press call Friday about the reported deaths.

• Cruz, whose loud, longtime opposition to most abortions dulled to a whisper this election cycle, did not respond to the American-Statesman's questions about the reports.

• However, Cruz defended Texas’ abortion laws to reporters at a Georgetown rally Wednesday… Cruz, a two-term senator, also slammed the press for what he called an "obsession" with abortion.

• In [a] Friday press call, Allred slammed Cruz for his role in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to block a Biden administration regulation requiring hospitals to provide abortions when they are necessary to “stabilize” an emergency patient. Cruz was among 121 Congress members to join a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of the state of Idaho’s lawsuit against the Biden administration.

• Texas’ abortion ban diverges strikingly from the will of the majority: 87% of likely voters in Texas would allow some time for pregnant patients to access a legal abortion in cases of rape or incest, according to an October Texas Politics Project poll.

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