As extremist lawmakers escalate attacks from SB8 to HB7, Texans are left living under a manufactured health care crisis, and survival depends on collective resilience and care networks.
By Rimsha Syed
Four years ago, extremist politicians in Texas passed Senate Bill 8 (SB8), colloquially known as the “Heartbeat Bill,” causing insurmountable harm to Texans and their families. When SB8 went into effect, 99% of Fund Texas Choice’s callers were having to travel out of state for abortion care, and our call volume jumped from 40-50 per month to over 200. Even before SB8 went into effect, Texans lived under one of the most restrictive and punitive anti-abortion landscapes to exist in the country. Between mandatory 24-hour waiting periods and long-distance travel, our callers were leaving the state long before the fall of Roe.
Bills like House Bill 2 (HB2) shuttered nearly 75% of abortion clinics in 2013 and 2014, and systemic restrictions to abortion care, left Texans to rely on themselves and networks of care created by practical support organizations and abortion funds alike. Texas is the largest state with an abortion ban, affecting over 7 million people of reproductive age. The sheer size of Texas, along with the banning of abortion access in neighboring states, led to a 450% increase in the amount of people needing practical abortion support and a 70% increase in the distance Texans were forced to travel.
Unfortunately, the harm inflicted by SB8 provided only a terrifying glimpse into the future, as the Supreme Court released its devastating decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health nine months later. This decision decimated the federal protections of abortion under Roe v. Wade and caused ripple effects across the entire country, with Texas being at the center of the national fight for human rights and bodily autonomy.
And now? If you’ve been keeping up with Governor Abbott’s back-to-back Special Legislative Sessions, you’ve heard about the latest nationwide abortion bounty hunter bills, SB7 and HB7. After three attempts this year alone and back-to-back sham hearings, the passage of HB7 reminds us that extremist lawmakers want to continue to isolate and punish Texans. This is the fourth anti-abortion ban that Texans are living under in our state. HB7 deputizes private citizens and rewards them for turning their backs on their neighbors. HB7’s real purpose is to control what support, and how much of it, Texans can actually receive. This bill will isolate Texans further than they have already been.
Texans are being subjected to a draconian state-manufactured healthcare crisis that is intended to expand beyond the state’s borders and eventually reach populations around the country.
What’s happening in Texas should concern us all because what happens in Texas has a domino effect. Abortion bans in Texas have already led to the deaths of multiple pregnant people who were denied life-saving abortion care or experienced healthcare delays that led to their passing. Shame. Since the passage of SB8, there has been an increase in maternal mortality rates, sepsis, and miscarriages. And instead of addressing the catastrophic harms that have given Texans no choice but to spend thousands of dollars and travel thousands of miles for care, extremist politicians are busy cooking up more ways to leave Texans in dangerous conditions. On August 30, 2025, Texas reproductive justice, health, and rights partners held a vigil at the Capitol to honor and remember those lost to abortion bans.
We know anti-abortion politicians aren’t remembering the loss of these humans at the hands of state-manufactured violence, but we will.
Alongside fighting these bills in the courtroom, traveling to Austin to give testimony, and organizing on the ground with our network, Fund Texas Choice has been showing up for Texans impacted by economic and logistical barriers to care. For over a decade, we’ve stood against bans and continued helping Texans access the abortion care they need and deserve. With each subsequent abortion ban, Texans have been forced to travel further, spend more, and that’s if they are even able to leave the state at all. Last year, Fund Texas Choice callers traveled, on average 1,500 miles out of Texas to 30 different states for abortion care, and Fund Texas Choice spent an average of $1,300 per caller.
One of our callers told Fund Texas Choice, “This experience was the most difficult of my life so far. I’ve heard about life-or-death situations where women are backed into a corner by legislation, I just never thought I would be one of those women. Being pregnant in Texas is terrifying.”
Speaking of how terrifying it is to be pregnant in Texas, there are many communities who face disproportionate barriers that make abortion access inaccessible. Marginalized people like those with disabilities, minors, immigrants, people of color, and low-income people face a myriad of socioeconomic and racial factors that further restrict equitable access to abortion. People in these groups are more likely to be denied access to healthcare, including abortion, and face disproportionately negative healthcare outcomes.
There’s no denying how incredibly disheartening it is to watch our leaders choose control over compassion, but together we will continue building a future where abortion is equitably accessible across political, economic, and social systems so that people can experience true autonomy. One thing about us is that we are resilient. Fund Texas Choice is committed to fighting back and centering the needs of our community. We all know that abortion is and always has been a reality of our lives, whether or not our leaders choose to respect that. We all deserve the right to make personal health decisions that will impact our lives, health, and futures.
We refuse to be silenced or sidelined — join us in fighting back, supporting abortion funds by donating, and demanding a future where every Texan can access the care they need with dignity, without fear, and within their own zip code.
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