Texas approved more than 100 medically necessary abortions since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, according to government data released this month.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission released data that showed 113 abortions were performed since July 2022 for women who qualified for medical exceptions to the state’s abortion ban. The Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe, allowing Texas to enforce its abortion ban with exceptions related to the health of the mother.
There were 67 elective abortions in July 2022, one month after the Dobbs decision, according to the data. However, not a single woman has had an elective abortion since.
Democratic Party leaders have claimed Texas’ abortion ban prevents women from receiving medically necessary care. Such accusations were echoed by Vice President Kamala Harris.
“This Texas Supreme Court ruling means women will continue to be denied access to necessary medical care, putting their health and lives at risk,” Harris tweeted in May. “To the women of Texas: Know you are not alone. @POTUS and I will continue to fight for reproductive freedom.”
Amy O’Donnell, the communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, said the Lone Star State’s abortion data disproves the talking being bandied about by Democrats and pro-abortion leaders.
“The latest report reaffirms that Kamala Harris’ dire claims about Texas’ protective abortion laws are completely baseless,” O’Donnell said. “Texas’ laws continue to save unborn babies from abortion while also protecting women’s lives in those rare and tragic cases where pregnancy endangers a pregnant woman’s life or health.”
“Since the Court overturned Roe, no doctor has been prosecuted by a district attorney, sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board, or sued by the Attorney General, and no pregnant woman has lost her life because of the provisions of Texas’ abortion laws, even with more than 360,000 live births in Texas each year,” she continued.
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-abortion group, lost a lawsuit in May in the Texas Supreme Court when arguing more than 20 women qualified for medical exceptions to the abortion law.
“A physician who tells a patient, ‘Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,’ and in the same breath states ‘but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances’ is simply wrong in that legal assessment,” the court wrote.
