By Joseph Morton
WASHINGTON — Dallas obstetrician/gynecologist Austin Dennard, who had to travel out of state for an abortion after learning her fetus had a severe, lethal birth defect, will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, invited her to the March 7 speech, joining Democrats across the country in putting abortion access at the heart of their 2024 campaign messaging.
Dennard said Texas women are being denied basic rights under state laws so restrictive that providers are scared to utter the word “abortion,” even when discussing options for patients with medically complicated pregnancies.
“It’s a disaster-relief situation now with providing standard medical care for women in pregnancy,” Dennard told The Dallas Morning News.
Another Dallas-area woman, Kate Cox, also will attend the speech as the guest of first lady Jill Biden. Cox unsuccessfully sued Texas for permission to end her pregnancy after receiving a lethal fetal diagnosis.
Allred is the frontrunner in a crowded Democratic primary, with the winner to face Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in November. Allred has touted his support of federal protections for abortion access and the right to interstate travel for health care.
Allred praised Dennard’s willingness to speak out so other women aren’t forced to leave their states under similar circumstances.
“I am so inspired by Dr. Dennard’s bravery and her resilience in the face of Texas’s cruel abortion ban,” Allred said in a statement. “No Texas woman should have to endure the hurdles that Dr. Dennard did to get the life-saving care she needed.”
Cruz was asked about Cox’s invitation when it was announced last month and said the White House engages in “extreme and dishonest rhetoric” on abortion.
Cruz described Democrats’ attempts to protect abortion access as opposition to any legal limits on the procedure and said the public, in contrast, supports some limits. He offered no comment when asked about Cox and other Texas women who have been denied abortions despite concerns about their health.
A group of those women, including Dennard, are challenging the state’s abortion restrictions in a case pending before the Texas Supreme Court.
Dennard was at her second pregnancy visit, getting routine blood work for genetic screening, when she asked for an ultrasound.
As soon as the scan started, she immediately saw something was catastrophically wrong. The diagnosis was anencephaly, a serious birth defect in which the skull and brain do not fully develop.
It is not compatible with life.
That was July 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court decision that struck down abortion rights established by Roe vs. Wade. Dennard said Texas law gave no option to terminate her pregnancy as long as there was a detectable heartbeat.
“I was going to be forced to continue carrying my pregnancy until either the baby died inside of me or I delivered and the baby died in my arms,” Dennard said. “And that was just not something I was willing to go through.”
Instead, she traveled to the East Coast for an abortion, saying she felt banished from her longtime home.
“I’m a sixth-generation Texan, and in order to receive standard medical care I had to flee my state like a criminal and receive a procedure from someone I had never met,” Dennard said. “That’s what I had to do in order to protect my body, protect my family and protect my future fertility because all of those things were on the line if I continued to remain pregnant, which was the only option in my state.”
She shared her story directly with Jill Biden last summer at the White House.
Dennard now has three children, including a 6-month-old son.
Her first pregnancy ended with an abortion after a catastrophic genetic diagnosis. She said that experience also was emotionally difficult but she was able to have an open discussion with her doctor and did not have to leave the state.
Dennard said she hopes Biden will speak at length about the issue during his speech before Congress to help keep the issue at the front of voters’ minds.
Her message also comes from her role as a doctor, what she hears from patients and her belief that pregnancy should be a time of celebration and joy.
“That joy has really been taken away from patients because now there’s so much fear that something bad could happen to them because standard medical care cannot be provided in a situation like my situation or Kate’s situation,” she said.
Providers have to be careful about what they say, Dennard said, because discussing options with patients could be interpreted as aiding them in obtaining an abortion, exposing medical professionals to legal liability.
“Putting myself out there and talking about it is still scary,” she said. “I just got to the point where I couldn’t be silent anymore. It was too painful to be silent.”
