Houston, TX—Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07); Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom For All; Drucilla Tigner, Co-Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes; Houston OB/GYN Dr. Todd Ivey, M.D.; Houston OB/GYN Dr. Damla Karsan, M.D.; Community Health Worker Paula Saldaña; and Reproductive Rights Activist Olivia Julianna decried the deaths of pregnant Texas women, including Josseli Barnica in Houston, after doctors delayed emergency care as a result of Texas Senate Bill 8. State Representative Gene Wu, State Representative Ron Reynolds, Houston Council Member Abbie Kamin, Southside Place Mayor Andy Chan, and other Houston OB/GYNs also joined the speakers in support of the Texas women who have lost their lives and in opposition to Texas’ extreme laws.
“Josseli Barnica should be alive today,” said Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher. “Josseli’s death demonstrates the peril that Texans and all Americans face when extreme, unchecked, and uninvolved politicians use their judgment to create laws about women’s autonomy. Congress must act to restore the rights of Americans in every state to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families, and their futures. But that will not happen if Republicans control the House, the Senate, or the White House. With voting taking place now, it is essential that Americans understand that our freedom to make our own decisions, and our ability to get the health care we need, is on the ballot. Our laws and lawmakers failed Josseli Barnica, as they have women across our country. We can begin to prevent further tragedies with our vote and we must continue the work to restore the health, privacy, dignity, and freedom of women and families in Texas and across our country.”
“Josseli Barnica should be alive today and the reason she is not is because of Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, and Ken Paxton, who helped put these deadly abortion bans in place,” said Mini Timmaraju, President and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All. “We cannot let this crisis continue. We can and must win a reproductive freedom majority in Congress and send Vice President Harris to the White House so she can sign a bill restoring the federal right to abortion and end bans like Texas’ once and for all.”
“The tragic and preventable death of Josseli Barnica underscores the deadly consequences of abortion bans enacted by Texas MAGA Republicans.” said Drucilla Tigner, Co-Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. “These draconian restrictions on reproductive freedom denied her access to essential, life-saving care. Josseli should be alive today, and her loss is a painful reminder of the urgent need to protect health care access for all Texans. We cannot stand by while politicians continue to play politics with people’s lives – putting countless others at risk. This is why it’s imperative to stay committed to fighting these bans, ensuring everyone can access the care they need without fear, delay, or death.”
“Josseli Barnica was a daughter. She was a wife. She was a mother,” said Dr. Todd Ivey, M.D. “And she’s no longer with us as a direct result of the strict abortion ban in our state. Women are unnecessarily becoming ill and dying. This is a call to action for the entire medical community to stand up, push back, and allow doctors to provide the appropriate care. This is a call to action for the elected leaders in our state to realize that the consequences of these laws are harming women.”
“This is health care being exploited for political gain and I beg you to please do what you can to make sure this doesn’t continue,” said Dr. Damla Karsan, M.D. “Our maternal mortality rate here in Texas is one of the highest in the country. And the maternal mortality in our country is the highest in the developed world. I stand here before you asking that you support candidates for elected office that can stop this interruption that is putting politics between patients and their providers.”
“La ley de S.B. 8 fue el modelo para la decisión Dobbs, y las prohibiciones del aborto han causado un grave daño a nuestras comunidades, mas que nada a los immigrantes,” said Community Health Worker Paula Saldaña. “Estas prohibiciones afectan desproporcionadamente a las Latinas y a las personas migrantes como Josseli, quien era madre e inmigrante de Honduras.
“Las Latinas y las personas inmigrantes llevan el peso de políticas extremas que nos quitan las herramientas que necesitamos para estar sanas, decidir cuándo o si queremos ser madres y criar a nuestras familias con dignidad,” continued Paula Saldaña. “Lamentablemente, historias como la de Josseli se están volviendo demasiado comunes. No podemos aceptar esto como nuestra realidad. A nadie se le debe negar atención en una emergencia médica, sin importar quién sea o dónde viva.”
“Donald Trump has consistently bragged about overturning Roe v. Wade. Ted Cruz said that it was a massive victory and said that Texas’ abortion ban was perfectly reasonable,’” said Reproductive Rights Activist Olivia Julianna. “It is going to be up to young voters in Texas making it extremely clear at the ballot box that we are not going to tolerate our lives and our health care being politicized. It is not pro-life for women to die in hospital beds of sepsis. It is not pro-life to threaten doctors with life in prison for providing patients their care. We have to make a decision about whether we are going to allow this to continue, or if we are going to vote in elected officials like Kamala Harris, Colin Allred, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher who want to trust us as women, who want to trust us as Texans, or if we want to continue to allow men like this who think that they should be making decisions and continue to hold power in this state.”
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Now in her third term in Congress, Fletcher was first elected to represent Texas’ Seventh Congressional District in 2018, becoming the first Democrat in more than 50 years and the first woman ever to represent TX-07.
