ICYMI: Texas Doctors in Houston Chronicle Op-Ed “Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, our patients are afraid. And so are we.”

“This issue, we all know, is on the November ballot — and nowhere, we think, is it more plain than in the race to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.”

HOUSTON– On Monday, the Houston Chronicle published an op-ed by Dallas’ Dr. Kim D. Vernon and Houston’s Dr. Anitra Beasley. The piece details how their patients face a dangerous new reality in Texas, and blames Ted Cruz’s years-long effort to overturn Roe v. Wade and his support for Texas’ ban as the reason their patients cannot get the care they need.

From the Houston Chronicle Op-ed: 

• We began practicing reproductive health care because we felt women needed to be better represented and cared for medically. Now, practicing under Texas’ near-total ban on abortions, we are seeing the opposite of that. Because we face the threat of losing our medical licenses or even going to prison, doctors have been forced to turn away patients in need of our care.
• Before Roe was overturned, we were already having difficult conversations about patients’ limited options under Texas’ SB 8 law. In the wake of Dobbs, it’s gone mostly silent. Patients are no longer showing up. 
• Before Dobbs, women would come to us when they were ready to start a family. Since Dobbs, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of women asking for permanent sterilization. They don’t want to risk the danger of becoming pregnant in our state.
• It is heartbreaking to see the trust and care built over time with our patients in these moments eroded by policies that paralyze us both. This is the reality in Texas.
• Extreme politicians without any medical knowledge or training should not be able to override licensed physicians simply because they decide to. It is ridiculous to suggest that a blanket ban could address all women and maternal situations.
• This issue, we all know, is on the November ballot — and nowhere, we think, is it more plain than in the race to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.
• Sen. Ted Cruz fought for years to overturn Roe v. Wade, working to elect members of the Legislature, endorse personhood amendments and approve federal judges to make it a reality. On the day of the Dobbs decision two years ago, he called it “nothing short of a massive victory.” He explicitly supports a total ban with no exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother and he has called Texas’ abortion ban “perfectly reasonable.”
• There is nothing reasonable about what is happening to women and providers. That’s why in November, thousands of other doctors will join us in voting for Cruz’s opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. Texas women and doctors can’t go on this way.

Read the opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle here