Texas women at DNC tell of necessary health care denied because of state abortion laws

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CHICAGO — Kate Cox, who fled Texas to terminate her unviable pregnancy due to the state’s restrictive abortion laws, helped announce the state party’s votes for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee on Tuesday.

She also shared that she is expecting a child in January.

“Today, because I found a way to access abortion care, I am pregnant again,” Cox announced from the floor of the Democratic National Convention, receiving some of the loudest applause of the evening. “And my baby is due in January, just in time to see Kamala Harris sworn in as president.”

Abortion access has been one of the biggest pillars of Democrats’ messaging this election, and Democrats highlighted Texas with its restrictive abortion laws throughout the national convention. Amanda Zurawski, who sued Texas over its abortion laws after doctors refused to end her nonviable and life-threatening pregnancy, spoke on the convention stage Monday evening.

Cox’s story drew national attention to abortion access in Texas. She was hoping for a third child, but her doctors told her that her fetus had a fatal genetic condition and told her that she needed to terminate the pregnancy to save the ability to conceive again. But her doctors declined to end the pregnancy, citing the state law.

Cox sued the state to be able to get an abortion, but ended up leaving the state to get the procedure.

“I had to flee my home,” Cox said from the convention stage. “There is nothing pro-family about abortion bans. There is nothing pro-life about letting women suffer and even die.”

Cox disclosed publicly for the first time in June that she was pregnant again and expecting in January. She made the announcement in a CNN interview just before the second anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that reversed Roe v. Wade.

Cox was one of four Texans who helped announce the state party’s votes, along with actor Eva Longoria, state party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa and Cecile Richards, a former president of Planned Parenthood and the daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards. The four Texans announced the votes to an instrumental rendition of Beyoncé’s “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Zurawski and her husband, Josh, spoke Monday evening along with two other women who were impacted by state abortion restrictions: Kaitlyn Joshua of Louisiana and Hadley Duvall of Kentucky.

“Every time I share our story, my heart breaks,” Amanda Zurawski said. “For the baby girl we wanted desperately. For the doctors and nurses who couldn’t help me deliver her safely. For Josh, who feared he would lose me, too. But I was lucky. I lived.”

Zurawski noted that over a third of American women who are of reproductive age live under some kind of abortion restriction.

President Joe Biden evoked the reversal of Roe v. Wade during his convention speech Monday evening, saying it would galvanize women to vote against Republicans. Democrats cited the decision as important to their ability to hold off a major Republican upset in the U.S. House and keep control of the Senate in the 2022 midterms.

“The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade that you heard earlier tonight — the U.S. Supreme Court majority wrote the following: Women are not without electoral or political power,” Biden said. “No kidding. MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022, and Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.”

Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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