This week marks the anniversary of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. For millions of Texans, it is a day of somber reflection on lost freedom.
For Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, it is a cause for celebration.
When the ruling came down, Paxton declared it an official holiday for his office, shutting down state business to celebrate a law that stripped his own constituents of bodily autonomy.
Paxton continues to be one of the loudest supporters and most aggressive enforcers of Texas’ extreme abortion ban.
By inserting himself into the exam room, he has placed the weight of the state government between women and their doctors. The consequences are measured in the real, devastating suffering of Texas families.
Look at the story of Amanda Zurawski from Austin. When her water broke prematurely at 18 weeks, her doctors knew the pregnancy was no longer viable and that she was at high risk for a deadly infection. Yet, because a fetal heartbeat was still present, hospital lawyers blocked medical intervention. Amanda was forced to wait until she crashed into life-threatening sepsis before she could legally be treated, spending three days in the ICU fighting for her life.
Because of Paxton’s extreme positions, stories like Amanda’s have become our state’s new normal. Doctors must consult lawyers instead of medical textbooks, driving a dangerous 50% increase in pregnancy-related sepsis cases in Texas hospitals. Maternal mortality rates in Texas skyrocketed by 56% in the wake of these bans. This is a preventable tragedy that far outpaced the rest of the nation.
Ken Paxton has built his career on controlling people’s lives, bodies, and futures.
As Texas attorney general, he has enforced one of the cruelest abortion bans in the country, fought to block emergency abortion care, and tried to punish providers for helping patients access legal care.
Now, he wants to bring that same extremism to the U.S. Senate.
Texans deserve leaders who will protect their freedom, respect families, and trust medical professionals, not politicians like Paxton who will stop at nothing to ban abortion and put people’s health and lives at risk.
This November, Texas voters must reject this cruel overreach and ensure Paxton never becomes a United States Senator.
(Kimberleigh Gonzalez is with the Texas State Democratic Executive Committee for Congressional District 19.)
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Gonzalez condemns ‘Ken Paxton’s war on Texas women’ | Opinion
Reporting by By Kimberleigh Gonzalez, special for the Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Kimberleigh Gonzalez, special for the Avalanche-Journal | USA TODAY Network
