Two years after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and three years since the implementation of Texas’s SB 8 “bounty” bill in 2021, the facts on the ground are showing exactly what activists expected: a massive increase in deaths of both mothers and infants.
The Gender Equity Policy Institute reports a 56% increase in pregnancy-related deaths (defined as the loss of life due to complications related to pregnancy or aggravated by pregnancy-related conditions) in Texas between 2019 and 2022, while the national statistic increased by 11% during the same timeframe. This represents a significant spike in the already troubling trend of rising pregnancy-related mortality in the state.
Texas is also seeing troubling trends in infant health. Recent analysis found that infant mortality rates in Texas increased by 13% following the passage of SB 8. In 2022 alone, the state had 2,240 infant deaths, up from 1,985 the previous year.
Much of this increase can be attributed to a rise in deaths caused by congenital anomalies — fatal conditions that could have been addressed if abortion services were available. Between 2021 and 2022, Texas saw a significant rise in infant deaths due to congenital anomalies, increasing by 22.9%. This stands in stark contrast to the rest of the U.S., where there was a 3.1% decrease in such deaths over the same period.
In short, SB 8 has exacerbated the crisis already present in the Texas healthcare system, where people are now being forced to continue high-risk pregnancies to term, often with limited access to prenatal healthcare – especially in rural areas – and while facing a rise in chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes, which contribute to pregnancy complications.
In many cases, people are being forced to carry pregnancies for several months, despite knowing that these pregnancies are unlikely to result in the birth of a healthy baby. “For each of these pregnancies, that’s a pregnant person who had to stay pregnant for an additional 20 weeks,” explained Dr. Erika Werner, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Tufts Medical Center, in an interview with NBC News. This prolonged period not only risks the mother’s health but also adds emotional trauma to an already devastating situation.
While Republicans spearheaded SB 8, passing it under the pretext of protecting life, the outcomes reveal the policy’s destructive anti-life nature. People in Texas are being denied access to life-saving medical care, and the rising rates of pregnancy-related deaths show just how deadly these so-called “pro-life” policies have been. Republican lawmakers continue to pursue their ideological agenda, showing little regard for the human cost of their decisions.
On the other hand, Democrats have also failed to protect reproductive rights. Despite controlling both Congress and the White House from 2020 to 2022, they took no significant action to safeguard abortion rights at the federal level. Many within the party have used the issue of abortion as a way to rally support or cynically raise millions of dollars in campaign funding without implementing concrete legislative solutions to enshrine abortion access in law.
This failure highlights how both major political parties serve only their own interests, and those of the ruling class, rather than those of working people. Reproductive rights are treated as a bargaining chip or a right-wing culture war hot button, rather than as a medical necessity, and both Republicans and Democrats have exploited this issue for political gain.
In light of this growing crisis, it’s clear that small policy reforms will not suffice. The people need unrestricted reproductive healthcare to prevent further increases in maternal and infant mortality. Universal access to abortion services is crucial for improving these outcomes, particularly in states like Texas, where restrictive laws are exacerbating the crisis.
Donald Trump has vacillated on the issue of abortion, recognizing that the right’s abortion bans are extremely unpopular but not wanting to alienate a part of his base which supports these bans.
Kamala Harris is promising to “restore” Roe v. Wade, but this is not enough. Even before the overturning of Roe, right-wing laws and the anarchy of the free market had made abortion inaccessible for millions of women by the creation of barriers of cost and restrictive regulations that drove providers out of business. As a staunch opponent of socialized medicine (e.g. Medicare for All), Harris’ best-case scenario for abortion access would still leave millions of uninsured, under-insured, poor, and rural people without any abortion access. But that assumes Harris even intends to follow through on this promise, despite refusing to act protect or codify abortion access any time during the last four years.
In contrast, the campaign of Claudia De la Cruz and Karina Garcia offers a transformative solution that meets the scale of the problem: that “[a]bortion should be available without restrictions and provided for free so that women and all people have the right to control their own bodies.” Unlike the Republicans or Democrats, who believe that the “free market” (monopolistic corporations) should govern who receives healthcare, the Claudia/Karina campaign is demanding that the largest 100 corporations (including pharmaceutical giants) be seized and put under public control for the public good.
Whatever the outcome in November, we should ask, how can lasting change be achieved? The answer is mass mobilization. Working-class people must unite in demanding not just the restoration of abortion rights, but a complete overhaul of the healthcare system. We must fight for a socialist system that values public well-being and healthcare for all, which is essential to securing reproductive freedom and ensuring that every person has control over their own body. Only through collective action can we win a future in which healthcare is a universal right and human lives are valued above corporate profit.
