Texas Democrats and abortion rights advocates have signed a letter to the Biden Administration asking the president to take executive action to protect access to abortion.
Last year, the Texas legislature passed a law banning abortion that would take effect 30 days after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling reversing Roe v Wade; earlier this month, the Texas Supreme Court ruled the state could also begin enforcing a ban passed in 1925 immediately.
The letter was signed by ten current members of Congress or Democratic candidates from Texas, 32 current members of or candidates for the state legislature, Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa, former State Senator Wendy Davis and 12 advocacy groups including ACLU of Texas, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Texas and Whole Woman's Health.
The letter asks for five steps to be taken by the Biden Administration:
1. Declare a public health emergency protecting private providers who dispense medication abortion via telehealth.
2. Support mission-driven telehealth providers and abortion funds across America.
3. Establish a Federal program for providers to dispense medication abortion.
4. Invoke the Federal Government’s supremacy over state abortion laws that conflict with FDA-approved pharmaceutical regimens and regulations.
5. Protect third parties within and outside the state of Texas from threat of civil and criminal actions where self-sourcing of abortion medications are used.
"Women are being denied care for ectopic pregnancies for fear by administrations of hospitals they will be found criminally liable, interfering with their doctors' desires to care for them," Davis says.
"Every day there are more and more stories of people in dire circumstances who need care but cannot get it," says Dyana Limon Mercado, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Texas.
Donna Howard (D-Austin) chairs the Texas Women's Health Caucus. She says Texas law will lead to doctors and hospitals turning away women having complications during their pregnancy.
"Women who actually want their pregnancies and have complications cannot get the medical care they need," she says. "That is unbelievable."
At the Texas Democratic Convention this weekend, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston) said the ruling did not ban abortion, the Supreme Court only ruled states can make the decision on their own. She says Congress could also protect abortion access at the federal level.
"The Supreme Court says it goes back to the people. Guess who we are?" she says.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit last week arguing guidance from the Biden Administration violated states' rights to enforce legal code. The guidance said doctors are protected by federal law if they terminate a pregnancy during emergency treatment, and pharmacies must fill prescriptions for medications that can induce abortions or risk violating federal civil rights law.
When the ruling was announced, Governor Greg Abbott said the Supreme Court was correct in overturning Roe v Wade and "reinstated the right of states to protect innocent, unborn children.”
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