AUSTIN, Texas — On Sunday, the day that would have been the 50-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris shared one Austin couple's pregnancy story on her Instagram page.
Vice President Harris captioned the video:
"Abortion bans put women’s lives at risk. On the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I’m sharing Amanda and Josh’s story as we call on Congress to protect reproductive freedom for everyone, everywhere."
Amanda and Josh Zurawski detailed their experiences post-Roe v. Wade's overturn. Amanda Zurawski said just before reaching her 18-week pregnancy mark, she was diagnosed with an "incompetent cervix." This meant she was dilating prematurely.
Doctors told her she would have an inevitable miscarriage.
“They told us that the only thing we could do was wait," Amanda Zurawski said in the video the vice president shared.
Under former laws, this diagnosis would have allowed Amanda Zurawski to receive a medical emergency-related abortion immediately. However, Texas's trigger law prevented this, and it was only when her life was considered "at-risk" that she was able to receive the care she needed as she lost her baby.
"This was preventable," Amanda Zurawski said. "It didn’t have to happen to me, and it’s something that shouldn’t have happened to me, but it did because of these laws the state of Texas had recently passed."
Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 and the state's trigger law going into effect in August, Texas saw an immediate and dramatic decrease in the numbers of abortions. Notably, abortions performed at abortion clinics and surgery centers dwindled from nearly 2,600 in June to just three in August.
Abortions performed in the first eight weeks of pregnancy or less dropped to zero.
Texas's trigger law bans all abortions, except under limited circumstances like a "life-threatening condition to the mother caused by pregnancy." Abortion in the state is punishable by up to life in prison and, at least, a $100,000 fine for each offense.