In the two years since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, how has the reproductive health of women in Texas been affected?
The Domino Effect of Roe v Wade
On June 24, 2022, Roe v Wade, the landmark bill that gave the constitutional right to have an abortion, as well as protection of privacy and liberties was overturned. The subsequent removal of these rights led to a backlash, as reproductive rights groups were concerned not only about its effect on women’s reproductive health, but the domino effect that could take place.
As the National Women’s Law Center points out, Roe v Wade can be used as the basis for removing more laws tied to privacy such as Loving v Virginia (as it was cemented via Roe’s right to personal liberties and privacy). At the moment in Texas, the overturning of Roe v Wade has resulted in violations of privacy and women being arrested for murder for self induced abortions. One notable case after the overturning of Roe v. Wade to hit the media was Lizelle Herrera, a Texas woman who was charged with inducing abortion, information NBC believes her hospital likely reported her to authorities. Though the charges against Herrera were dropped, the following year three women were sued by a Texas man for allegedly assisting his wife in performing a self-managed abortion, which the lawsuit argues qualifies as murder. Charles Rhoades, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law states that such lawsuits could gain footing.
“Obviously, the allegations would have to be proven, but there is potentially merit to this suit under Texas’ abortion laws as they exist now,” Rhodes said to the Texas Tribune.
The legal backlash to the overturning of Roe v. Wade does not just apply to women who have allegedly performed or supported self-managed abortions. 34 year old Brittany Watts was arrested after having a misscarriage at 22 weeks in her bathroom, due to how she handled the remains after the miscarriage took place. As Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California-Davis stated, there is not a particular guide on how to deal with an abortion.
“There’s no kind of how-to guide about what you should do if you experience a miscarriage at home. So it’s, I think, unusual for prosecutors to be holding Brittany Watts to a standard that wasn’t written down anywhere when she made the choices she did,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler also notes to PBS that charging someone for the mishandling of corpses is not typically associated with miscarriages.
“If you think about abuse of a corpse, you’re thinking of people mistreating remains for medical experimentation, or you’re thinking of people, after a homicide, dismembering bodies to hide the crime. This almost never would be a charge you would see applied in a miscarriage case,” Ziegler said.
Ziegler states that in her opinion, there has been a trend of “the criminalization of pregnancy,” in fact stating that it is even the acceleration of a trend.
“I think Brittany Watts’ case is remarkable in a couple of ways. There’s a history, as the group Pregnancy Justice has documented, of laws criminalizing the actions of pregnant patients, particularly usually actions that were taken by low-income people, people of color, particularly substance abuse, sometimes of illegal drugs, sometimes of legal drugs like alcohol,” Ziegler said.
The trend that is cited by both ZIegler and Amna Nawaz of PBS was in a Duke study from 2021 concluded that non-Hispanic Black women are not only most at risk, but the denial of abortion could worsen the “health crisis,” they are already going through.
“Structural racism is a fundamental cause of maternal health inequity (Bailey et al. 2021; Crear-Perry et al. 2021; Krieger et al. 2020), and Black women already experience excessive levels of pregnancy-related mortality (CDC Division of Reproductive Health 2020). Increasing Black women’s exposure to the risk of pregnancy-related mortality because their wanted abortions are denied would exacerbate an existing public health crisis,” the study states.
Resources for Black Women Post Roe v. Wade & What We Can Do
With Texas’ restrictive abortion laws (which only allow for an abortion when it is life saving or to prevent significant harm), resources for preventative (and in turn life saving care) is limited, but not inaccessible. There are resources such as Trust Her, which offers free birth control for those eligible. These birth control methods include IUD and arm implants. You can also use the site Everybody Texas, which helps locate Title X Clinics (clinics that were established in 1970 which provides affordable birth control and reproductive health care for people who are low income). While these resources don’t take the place of Roe v. Wade, it can help prevent pregnancy and in turn slow a “public health crisis.”
For women (especially Black women) looking for support to carry children to term and minimize likelihood of a miscarriage (or receive necessary reproductive health) access to Black healthcare providers appears pivotal to being seen and heard.
A Health Affairs study found that several of the Black women participating in the study believe that having access to Black healthcare providers offers them a sense of ease.
“Many participants believed that increasing the presence and prevalence of Black medical professionals or having a more diverse medical staff could reduce individual racism within the medical system. Black medical professionals were seen as more trustworthy, more knowledgeable of Black women’s circumstances and reproductive health concerns, more empathic, and more apt to provide comprehensive health information,” the study stated.
Watts had gone to the hospital twice before for vaginal bleeding and left after receiving no treatment. Something that is common for Black women.
Health in Her Hue offers a list of resources for Black women seeking maternal health. You can also use Black Doctors US to find a physician in your area.