ICYMI – Dallas Morning News: Ted Cruz Skips Texas Woman’s Testimony About Fleeing the State for Medically Necessary Abortion

DALLAS – Today, the Dallas Morning News published a story detailing yesterday’s Senate Judiciary hearing on the dangers of banning interstate travel for women seeking an abortion. Dallas resident Lauren Miller gave testimony on her harrowing experience of being forced to flee Texas to receive a medically necessary abortion for an unviable pregnancy. Cruz chose to skip the hearing rather than hear the perspectives of a Texas woman whose suffering he is responsible for. Congressman Colin Allred sat down with Lauren Miller ahead of her testimony to hear directly from her about the impacts of Texas’ ban which goes too far, and reiterate his commitment to protecting Texas women’s freedoms.

From the Dallas Morning News story: 

• After one ultrasound, Miller said, a frustrated doctor ripped off his gloves, threw them in the trash and spoke bluntly: “This baby isn’t going to make it to birth. I can’t help you. You need to leave the state.” Miller traveled to Colorado, where she was able to get an abortion.
• Allred met with Miller before her testimony and hailed a decision by the Amarillo City Council this week to reject a proposed abortion travel ban.
• Allred has criticized Cruz for supporting the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade and Texas laws prohibiting abortion in nearly all cases. 
• “Texas women cannot be prisoners in their own state, and when I am elected, I will stand up for women’s freedoms to get the health care they need, close to home and without fear of criminalization,” Allred said…Cruz aides did not respond to a request for comment.
•  [Cruz] sits on the subcommittee that held Wednesday’s hearing, but he…did not attend the afternoon session.
• “Where does that leave Texans like me?” she said. “My life was in danger. So was the life of my now-healthy son. Eighteen months later and I still wake up in a cold sweat terrified by nightmares of being hunted down.”
• She said her case demonstrates that exceptions to the state’s abortion law are a “fiction” and federal protection of abortion access is needed.

Read the story from the Dallas Morning News here.