A Texas woman testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the subject of the harm of abortion bans tore into her senators on Wednesday, saying she nearly died as “a direct result” of the policies Ted Cruz and John Cornyn support.
Amanda Zurawski, one of five women suing the state of Texas for denying them abortions after medical complications arose in their pregnancies, began by noting that neither Cruz nor Cornyn was present in the room.
“But I would like for them to know that what happened to me… it’s a direct result of the policies that they support,” she said. “I nearly died on their watch. And furthermore, as a result of what happened to me, I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future.”
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Despite that, Zurawski continued, she considered herself “lucky,” as she had a supportive partner and a job “that allowed me to grieve for three days as I waited to almost die.”
She raised the specter of the “many” women who need life-saving abortions but don’t have the same support system. “What about them?” she asked.
Zurawski, who was diagnosed with an “incompetent cervix” during her second trimester last year, received an emergency abortion only after her condition deteriorated and she went into septic shock.
“I cannot adequately put into words the trauma and despair that comes with waiting to either lose your own life, your child’s life, or both,” she told The Intercept earlier this year. “For days I was locked in this bizarre and avoidable hell.”
On Wednesday, Zurawski explained that the mental health repercussions—including PTSD and depression—she’s suffered in the eight months since the ordeal have been “paralyzing.”
Texas is one of 13 states nationwide that currently outlaws abortion. The language in its abortion laws is both restrictive and “incredibly vague,” Zurawski said, “and it leaves doctors grappling with what they can and cannot do, what health care they can and cannot provide.”
Last month, the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights sued Texas on behalf of Zurawski and four other women who suffered “catastrophic harms” because they were forced to continue carrying their babies. The suit seeks clarity on when and how healthcare providers can legally perform an abortion in the state.
Both Cruz and Cornyn sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and were in attendance at other parts of Wednesday’s hearing, according to The Hill.
Cornyn later admitted that Zurawski should not have had to wait for an abortion, but appeared to shrug off the implication that he bore any blame on a systemic level.
“Sounds like she’s got a good medical malpractice lawsuit,” he told reporters, according to the Dallas Morning News.
