Governor Greg Abbott said that the Texas ban on abortion needs no clarification despite reports of pregnant people dying and fleeing the state for reproductive healthcare. In an interview with Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle, he stated:
“There have been hundreds of abortions that have been provided under this law, so there are plenty of doctors and plenty of mothers that have been able to get an abortion that saved their lives and protect their health and safety. So, I know as the law as it currently exists can work if it is properly applied.”
Texas has one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. Currently, the procedure is completely outlawed except to save the life of the pregnant person. There is no provision for rape, incest, or fetal abnormality.
Abbott’s stance has become part of a dedicated anti-reproductive healthcare push that claims the abortion ban does not pose a significant danger to pregnant Texans and needs no further legal clarification. It is true that abortions are still happening in Texas. The latest Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) report from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) released on February 3 shows that 54 abortions were performed in Texas hospitals in 2024.
All but one of them involved pregnancies on or before the 20-week mark. The majority were medication abortions, while three involved hysterectomies. Fifty-one of the abortions were performed due to medical emergency and to preserve the health of the pregnant person, while three were only to preserve the health.
After the report was released, the Texas Alliance for Life said the continued presence of abortions proved that the law was not a danger.
“These numbers make it absolutely clear that Texas’ pro-life laws are protecting women and unborn babies in our state,” said Amy O’Donnell, Communications Director for Texas Alliance for Life. “No doctor has been prosecuted, sued, or sanctioned for providing an abortion to save a woman’s life. No woman has lost her life for lack of an exception in the law. Misinformation suggesting otherwise spreads unnecessary fear among pregnant women and misleads the public about what our laws actually say.”
O’Donnell is wrong about no lives being lost. At least three women have died since the abortion ban was put in place. The latest bled to death in a Houston hospital because her doctor would not risk an abortion procedure that the hospital feared ran afoul of Texas law. Doctors who break abortion laws in Texas face 99 years in prison.
In 2023, 20 Texas women and their doctors sued the state of Texas over the abortion ban. In all the women’s cases, wanted pregnancies turned dangerous, and they had to seek healthcare outside of the state. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in November that the law’s language was sufficient to protect Texas women despite their experiences.
“To be honest, looking at the law and looking at the situation that some of these mothers have been in, some mothers have either been denied what they were rightfully entitled to or didn’t accept what they were rightfully entitled to,” Abbott told the Chronicle.
Despite Abbott’s claim that the law’s current language is sufficient, Texas doctors are worried and, in many cases, leaving the state. Some physicians worry that even telling patients what to look for when it comes to a pregnancy that may need to be terminated for medical emergency could land them in jail. The continued efforts of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to find more cases to tighten the state’s abortion ban hangs over the head of the medical community, leading to tragedy.
As one doctor told CBS News in November: The attorney general is looking to make an example out of somebody. And you don’t want to be that case. The presence of some abortions legally and safely happening does not erase the miasma of terror around reproductive healthcare in Texas.
