Last week would have marked the 52nd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which guaranteed the federal constitutional right to abortion — until it was overturned in 2022. As data rolls in showing the detrimental effects of abortion bans like the one in Texas, the numbers only get more grim.
One hundred Texas children received abortions in other states in 2023 — the first year after Texas’ ban of the procedure took effect — including six children under the age of twelve, the Houston Chronicle reported on Monday. The numbers came via state data and are a nearly ninefold jump from figures five years earlier, though the newspaper reported that they only covered the first half of 2023 and were likely an undercount, as fears around prosecution have risen in the wake of the ban.
Despite a lack of transparency from the state, news reports and academic research have emerged showing the detrimental effects Texas’ abortion ban has had on women’s health — and the health of babies. Mothers are dying at increasing rates. Infants are dying and abandoned at increasing rates. STDs are surging, and doctors are fleeing. The Barbed Wire pulled together available — and reliable — data, studies, lawsuits, patient complaints, and individual stories of women and infants who have been harmed by these laws.
In December, the Houston Landing chronicled the arduous, cross-country journey some teens have made in order to end their pregnancies. A month earlier, ProPublica reported on the death of a teenager who was unable to get care when she encountered pregnancy complications.
Children under the age of 17 cannot consent to sexual activity, per Texas law, but our state makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Despite this, doctors have said that children see more complications in pregnancy than adult women, including serious and high-risk conditions that endanger both their lives and the lives of infants, as well as girls’ ability to conceive later in life.
“These are not just statistics,” state Rep. Mihaela Plesa, a Democrat from North Texas, told the Chronicle in an interview on Wednesday. “These are real stories about people who are having these traumatic experiences. It’s happened right here in my district in Plano. This isn’t happening just in low socioeconomic areas or certain districts. This is happening all over our state.”
Read more at Houston Chronicle.
