FACT SHEET: How Democrats Will Deliver for Abortion Access in Texas

In the United States, more state abortion restrictions were passed in 2021 than any other year since Roe v. Wade was decided. One of the most draconian of these was the SB8 inaptly named the “Heartbeat Law,” enacted by Texas Republicans. 

Texas Republicans’ extreme abortion ban has no exception for rape or incest, and is designed to prevent doctors from being able to freely carry through with medical practices that are unquestionably in the best physical, mental, and emotional interest of the mother. 

Furthermore, a record number of states have taken action to prevent many qualified family planning providers from participating in their Medicaid programs, undercutting access to a broad range of reproductive health care services — including contraceptives and preventive care such as cancer screenings — for low-income people. 

With the Dobbs ruling, Americans can no longer rely on federal protections to protect their right to bodily autonomy, and for that reason state officials have outsized power compared to the previous decades.

Access to abortion is not only a fundamental matter of our right to privacy but also a matter of equity and personal and public health:

• Restricted access to abortion is associated with negative consequences for pregnant individuals and adverse birth outcomes such as preterm births and low-birthweight infants.
• State-level restrictions such as mandatory parental involvement, mandatory counseling, mandatory waiting period, two-visit laws, and gestational age limit laws are associated with an increased risk for infant mortality.
• Restrictive abortion policies compound existing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic perinatal and infant health inequities.
• Policies that restrict the ability of U.S. funding to support global NGOs that provide or counsel clients on abortion also disrupt access to contraception and HIV testing and counseling, and are associated with worse child health outcomes.
• Access to health care affects the ability to effectively manage comorbid conditions during pregnancy that may contribute to overall higher costs of pregnancy.
• Women denied abortion due to laws setting gestational age limits are more likely to have worsened economic hardship and insecurity that can last for years.

Texas Democrats’ Policy Proposals to Deliver for Reproductive Freedom & Abortion Access:

Policy Proposals from Beto O’Rourke for Governor:

​​All Texans deserve the freedom to make their own decisions about their own body, their own health care, and their own future. We deserve the freedom to decide if, when, and with whom to start a family.

Beto trusts Texas women to make their own health care decisions.

Abbott’s eight years of attacks on reproductive freedom have shuttered women’s health clinics across the state, making it harder and harder for women to receive a cervical cancer screening, maternal health checkup, or family planning help of any kind. On his watch, Texas ranks dead last in the nation for access to prenatal and maternal health care, which helps to explain how our state—the ninth largest economy on planet earth—has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the developed world.

In addition to using every tool available to repeal Abbott’s dangerous abortion ban, Beto will veto any future legislation that seeks to further control women, including Republican proposals to limit access to contraception, prevent Texans from crossing state lines to seek reproductive care, and prosecute businesses that pay for employees to seek care in other states.

While strengthening investments in affordable contraception, cancer screenings, and other crucial family planning services, Beto will also support healthy babies and combat Texas’ maternal mortality crisis by expanding Medicaid and increasing pregnancy Medicaid eligibility to one-year postpartum.

Policy Proposals from Mike Collier for Lt. Governor and Rochelle Garza for Attorney General:

Mike Collier will fight to ensure that women and their doctors—not politicians—make decisions about their own healthcare.

As Lt. Governor, he will work to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade into state law. He will put an end to the constant culture wars that have consumed our state government and pit Texan against Texan.

Indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Republicans showed with their lawsuit to block protections for women who are in a medical emergency that they’ll stop at nothing to exert control over Texans – and steamroll Texans with their extreme, far-right ideologies. This is not about being ‘pro-life.’ This is about forcing birth, even if it will literally kill women.

As our next Attorney General, Rochelle Garza is committed to defending the rights of women and pregnant people whenever they’re threatened, and will not pursue litigation to implement Texas’ trigger law nor prosecute abortion providers, including doctors who provide life-saving treatment. In the words of Rochelle Garza: Abortion care is health care, and health care is a human right.

How the Biden-Harris Administration is Delivering for Reproductive Freedom and Abortion Access:

While extremist Republicans on the Supreme Court overruled Roe with Dobbs, President Biden signed an Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services. This Executive Order builds on the actions his Administration has already taken to defend reproductive rights by:

• Protecting Access to Medication Abortion.  Health & Human Services (HHS) will take additional action to protect and expand access to abortion care, including access to medication that the FDA approved as safe and effective over twenty years ago. These actions will build on the steps the Secretary of HHS has already taken at the President’s direction following the decision to ensure that medication abortion is as widely accessible as possible.
• Ensure Emergency Medical Care. HHS will take steps to ensure all patients – including pregnant women and those experiencing pregnancy loss – have access to the full rights and protections for emergency medical care afforded under the law, including by considering updates to current guidance that clarify physician responsibilities and protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). 
• Protect Access to Contraception. HHS will take additional actions to expand access to the full range of reproductive health services, including family planning services and providers, such as access to emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception like intrauterine devices (IUDs). In all fifty states and the District of Columbia, the Affordable Care Act guarantees coverage of women’s preventive services, including free birth control and contraceptive counseling, for individuals and covered dependents. The Secretary of HHS has already directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to take every legally available step to ensure patient access to family planning care and to protect family planning providers.
• Launch Outreach and Public Education Efforts. HHS will increase outreach and public education efforts regarding access to reproductive health care services—including abortion—to ensure that Americans have access to reliable and accurate information about their rights and access to care.
• The Attorney General and the White House Counsel will convene private pro bono attorneys, bar associations, and public interest organizations to encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking or offering reproductive health care services throughout the country.  Such representation could include protecting the right to travel out of state to seek medical care. Immediately following the Supreme Court decision, the President announced his Administration’s position that Americans must remain free to travel safely to another state to seek the care they need, as the Attorney General made clear in his statement and his commitment to fighting any attack by a state or local official who attempts to interfere with women exercising this right.

The President’s Executive Order takes additional steps to protect patient privacy, including by addressing the transfer and sales of sensitive health-related data, combatting digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services, and protecting people seeking reproductive health care from inaccurate information, fraudulent schemes, or deceptive practices.  

Issuing new guidance to address how the HIPAA Privacy Rule protects the privacy of individuals’ protected health information, including information related to reproductive health care. The guidance helps ensure doctors and other medical providers and health plans know that, with limited exceptions, they are not required – and in many cases, are not permitted – to disclose patients’ private information, including to law enforcement. 

The Attorney General will provide technical assistance to states affording legal protection to out-of-state patients as well as providers who offer legal reproductive health care. 

• The Secretary of HHS directed all HHS agencies to ensure that all HHS-funded providers and clinics have appropriate training and resources to handle family planning needs, and announced nearly $3 million in new funding to bolster training and technical assistance for the nationwide network of Title X family planning providers.
• On the day of the Supreme Court’s decision, HHS launched ReproductiveRights.gov, which provides timely and accurate information about reproductive rights and access to reproductive health care.  This includes know-your-rights information for patients and providers and promoting awareness of and access to family planning services, as well as guidance for how to file a patient privacy or nondiscrimination complaint with its Office for Civil Rights. 
• Providing Leave for Federal Workers Traveling for Medical Care.  The Office of Personnel Management issued guidance affirming that paid sick leave can be taken to cover absences for travel to obtain reproductive health care.
• Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services for Service members, DoD Civilians, and Military Families.  The Department of Defense (DoD) issued a memo to the Force, DoD civilians and military families on ensuring access to essential women’s health care services. The memo reiterates that the Department will continue to provide seamless access to reproductive healthcare for military and civilian patients, as permitted by federal law.  Military providers will continue to fulfill their duty to care for Service members, military dependents, and civilian personnel who require pregnancy termination in the cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother.

How Texas Democrats are Delivering for Reproductive Freedom and Abortion Access at the Local Level:

While Texas Republicans at the state level stripped people of their reproductive autonomy and freedom, Democrats have delivered for abortion rights not just at the federal level, but also at the local level:

Austin City Council led the way with the GRACE (Guarding the Right to Abortion Care for Everyone) Act that essentially relegates abortion cases as the lowest level of priority by the Attorney General, thus rendering SB8 ineffective within the city. 

Officials in Travis, Bexar, Nueces, Fort Bend, and Dallas Counties have sought out similar protections, as well as the cities of Houston, San Marcos, and Denton. 

Travis County District Attorney José Garza has said his office would not prosecute crimes under the law. "Enforcing this law will not only fail to promote or protect public safety but will also lead to more harm," he reiterated in a statement Thursday. "Our office will continue to fight for and protect women’s rights and use our discretion to avoid tragedy and preventable harm in our community."

San Marcos City Council Member Maxfield Baker said San Marcos Police Department's directive is comparable to Austin's GRACE Act. "Everything is so new that our community members are afraid. They don’t know whether or not police officers are going to pursue this or where it's going to land on their priority list," Baker said. "I want to send the right message to our community that we have their backs, we’re looking out for them and that we share some of these concerns because we’re still in these uncertain times."

Having Democrats in positions of power at city, county, state, and federal levels all serve as backstops to either circumvent or overrule the horrifying agenda of anti-abortion advocates in order to give bodily autonomy and the right to medical privacy back to Texans.