Texas Abortion Ban Survivor Says Ted Cruz Was a No-Show at Her Congressional Testimony
Ted Cruz is facing the fight of his political career to hold onto his U.S. Senate seat for a third term, and is currently polling neck-and-neck with his Democratic opponent, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas). It doesn’t help that abortion rights and the violence wrought by Texas’ abortion ban are a focal point of his race, because seemingly all Cruz can do is run from the issue.
On Friday, four Texas women who've suffered under the state's abortion ban condemned Cruz, not just for his staunchly anti-abortion record, but for his recent, insulting evasiveness on the issue. In a feature published by Newsweek, Kate Cox, Lauren Miller, Taylor Edwards, Kaitlyn Kash, and Ashley Brandt—who have each shared harrowing stories of nearly dying from being denied emergency abortion care—all declared Cruz a "liar."
In 2022, Miller was pregnant with twins when she learned that one wouldn’t survive due to a genetic defect called Trisomy 18. Continuing to carry the unviable fetus could result in a life-threatening sepsis infection or threaten the viable fetus she was also carrying. But under Texas law, and because she wasn't about to die, doctors wouldn't provide her with an emergency abortion, so Miller was forced to travel to Colorado for care. In June, to mark the second anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health and speak about the impact of Texas' ban, Miller recounted her experience for a Senate subcommittee hearing. She says Cruz, who sits on that subcommittee, didn’t bother to show up.
"I don't know if he was too busy podcasting or whatever, but he certainly wasn't there to do his job," Miller told the outlet. In contrast, Allred personally met with her for an hour. "That's the kind of representative I want—somebody who will actually listen.”
At his debate with Allred earlier this month, Cruz tried to shirk accountability for Texas' total ban. “I don't serve in the state Legislature. I'm not the governor,” he said. But in 2021, he called Texas’ SB 8 six-week abortion ban “perfectly reasonable,” despite its lack of exceptions. Miller also pointed out that Cruz “was instrumental in helping to overturn Roe” by confirming anti-abortion justices and judges. "The first thing to always remember with Ted Cruz is that he's a liar. … If there is one thing that Donald Trump has ever been right about, is that he is Lyin' Ted.”
NEW: Kamala Harris is heading to Texas Friday w/ a focus on abortion. It’s a central plank for Colin Allred in his race against Ted Cruz. Cruz last night still wouldn’t tell me if he supports exceptions for abortion bans for rape, incest or life of the mother. #txsen pic.twitter.com/jdLJh2ckOM
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) October 22, 2024
Miller, Edwards, Kash, and Brandt were plaintiffs in the Zurawski v. Texas lawsuit last year, in which two dozen women sued the state to clarify the abortion ban’s medical emergency exception. In December, Cox filed a petition to receive an emergency abortion for her dangerous, nonviable pregnancy, but was denied by the Texas Supreme Court and forced to travel out-of-state. “I’m pregnant today because I got access to abortion care, and so I have the chance to bring a baby home from the hospital," Cox told Jezebel in August, when she was in Chicago to speak at the Democratic National Convention.
Over the last several months, Cruz has continued to ignore questions from Texas newspapers about his position on a national abortion ban or whether he supports exceptions, including at his debate with Allred earlier this month, and again when pressed by a reporter this week. "There are videos of him being asked about Kate Cox… he literally runs away," Brandt said. "We need someone who's actually going to stand up for us. … He won't even take calls."
In 2023, Edwards told Jezebel that her scarring experience with Texas’ abortion ban left her afraid to ever get pregnant again while living in the state. “When I got the news that I was all clear to start IVF again, I had a moment of, ‘Oh my God, I’m not going to do this’—because I’m just so scared of being pregnant again," she said. “But... I have to do this, even though I’m absolutely terrified. My husband’s absolutely terrified.” Cruz has repeatedly voted against Senate Democrats' bill to establish a federal right to receive and provide fertility services like IVF. Instead, he introduced his own bill that claims to protect IVF while leaving the door wide open for states with fetal personhood laws to outlaw it.
Cruz, Edwards told Newsweek, has “refused to take any accountability for his actions" against abortion. “He's trying to dodge the blame for something, an environment he created."