Amanda Zurawski talks abortion fight in Texas at SXSW

South by Southwest on Friday brought together two of the plaintiffs in the abortion case Zurawski v. Texas — Amanda Zurawski and Samantha Casiano — along with Nancy Northup, president and CEO of Center for Reproductive Rights, and Elizabeth Monteleone, interim general counsel for Austin-based dating app Bumble, to talk about the effects of the abortion laws in Texas and the court cases to get clarity on the medical exceptions allowed in the state's abortion laws.

Here's what we learned:

What is the plaintiffs' advice to women who want to get pregnant in Texas?

"Take deep breaths," Casiano said. "It's dangerous to be pregnant in Texas."

She advised women to have a plan on how to get care if needed. "Not every pregnancy is a healthy pregnancy," she said.

Zurawski advised women to become educated on their state law, and their doctor's and hospital's policies and practices. She said her husband Josh likes to say people now need "to pack two bags: a go bag (for the birth) and one if you have to flee."

We are still waiting for clarity on abortion laws in Texas

Once Senate Bill 8 became law in 2021, making it illegal to have an abortion after a heartbeat is detected, the Center for Reproductive Rights knew that even though that law had exceptions for medical reasons, "we knew the exceptions weren't going to be real," Northup said.

Zurawski and the 22 plaintiffs involved in the case, some of whom were doctors, sued to get clarity on the three active abortion laws in Texas and the medical exceptions. They won the case in district court, but then the case was argued before the Texas Supreme Court. They are still waiting for a ruling, which Northup expects to come any day now.

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She is not holding out hope for a favorable ruling, though, because of the Texas Supreme Court's ruling against Kate Cox, who was pregnant at the time and seeking an abortion for medical reasons.

Anti-reproductive rights actions continue to have an effect

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that an embryo is a human being and can't be destroyed, "there is a panic in my house," Zurawski said. The Zurawskis have two frozen embryos that they might want to use in the future, but they would use a surrogate because of her health scare. Zurawski wondered if they decided not to use them and have them destroyed because storing embryos is expensive, would someone think that was murder? Or if their surrogate had a miscarriage, would that be considered involuntary manslaughter? That was the kind of spinning thoughts the Zurawskis now have, even though the Alabama ruling does not affect women in Texas and that state has since passed an in vitro fertilization law.

Because of that ruling, though, Zurawski moved her embryos to an out-of-state facility, in a state that is more reproductive rights friendly.

The Center for Reproductive Rights also has sued Idaho and Tennessee, Northup said. "I expect more to come. After Amanda's case was filed, our phones were ringing off the hook," she said.

Anti-abortion laws are having an effect on businesses

The dating app Bumble has seen some of its workforce opt to work remotely away from Texas because of "the many laws in Texas that they find incompatible," said Elizabeth Monteleone, the company's interim general counsel. There are also "similar challenges with attracting talent," she said.

Monteleone said some businesses that provide enhanced insurance benefits, which include paying for abortion care out of state, gender-affirming care and fertility treatments, have received letters from the state threatening to go after them for supplying health care out of state.

"It's bad for business," Northup said of these laws.

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