Diane Sawyer and Rachel Scott cover stories of women who experienced emergency pregnancy complications (including 6 women from Texas) but were delayed or denied care due to restrictive state laws.
The stories on this page occurred before passage of the Life of the Mother Act. Stories like these highlighted the urgent need for the law and led to the formation of Texas Campaign for Mothers.
While we hope and pray the Life of the Mother Act will help prevent similar situations in the future, achieving that goal now depends on two things:
We have kept these articles available to underscore the importance of continued education and awareness. Texas Campaign for Mothers is working to raise public awareness through the Asking for a Mom campaign.
Note: Several of the stories below involve pregnancies diagnosed with a fatal fetal abnormality. These situations will continue in Texas because the Life of the Mother Act does not include an exception allowing families facing these devastating diagnoses to make informed decisions with their medical teams and faith leaders. We will continue to advocate for this exception in the upcoming legislative session.
Nevaeh Crain, from southeast Texas, dies from sepsis after she traveled to three different emergency rooms and awaited critical intervention for 20 hours.
Josseli Barnica, from Houston, died from a preventable infection following 40 hours of delayed miscarriage care.
Porsha Ngumezi, from Houston, died after hours of hemorrhage without proper miscarriage intervention due to the Texas abortion ban’s impact on the use of emergency D&Cs.
Yeniifer Alvarez, from rural Luling, TX, lost her baby and her life when her high risk pregnancy was met with the perils of poverty and inadequate maternal care exacerbated by Texas laws.
Choosing to remain anonymous, a pro-life conservative couple from Dallas share their traumatic pregnancy experience and how current Texas termination restrictions almost cost the mother her life.
Kate Cox, from Dallas, lost a lawsuit to terminate her pregnancy after learning her fetus had no chance of survival, garnering widespread national attention.
Amanda Zurawski, from Austin, almost died after being denied termination care when her water broke at 18 weeks, leaving her fetus no chance of survival.
Kimberly Manzano, a devout Christian from Dallas-Fort Worth, traveled to New Mexico to terminate her non-viable pregnancy, changing her prior pro-life identity.
Samantha Casiano, from outside Houston, was forced to carry her nonviable pregnancy to term and watch her baby die shortly after birth as she lacked resources to obtain out-of-state care.
Dr. Austin Dennard, from Dallas, had to travel out-of-state to terminate her nonviable pregnancy whilst restricted from speaking openly with her OB-GYN patients about pregnancy complication care.
Kelsie Norris-De La Cruz, from Arlington, was denied critical ectopic pregnancy care due to doctors’ legal fears surrounding existing Texas law.
Lauren Miller, from Dallas, had to leave the state to receive a selective reduction for her nonviable twin in order to save her healthy twin.
Kristen Anaya, from Frisco, had to wait until she developed sepsis before doctors could legally provide her life-saving termination care.
Dr. Danielle Mathisen, formerly from Fort Worth, fled the state for termination care after receiving a fatal fetal diagnosis, influencing her decision to obtain OB-GYN residency training outside of Texas.
Ashley Brandt, from Dallas, had to leave Texas to receive a selective reduction for her non-viable twin in order to protect herself and her healthy twin.
Elizabeth Weller, from Houston, was denied care for a developing infection when her water broke at 18 weeks until she was rushed to the emergency room.
Kyleigh Thurman, from outside Austin, was denied ectopic pregnancy care following multiple ER visits, resulting in the avoidable loss of her fallopian tube.
Kailee DeSpain, a multi-generational central Texan, travelled to New Mexico for termination care after learning her fetus had no chance of survival, changing her longstanding pro-life identity.
Lauren Hall, from outside Dallas, travelled across the country with the help of her pro-life family to receive termination care after spiraling into a deep depression following her fetus’ fatal diagnosis.