‘It felt like I was carrying a pregnancy that belonged to the state’: Dallas OB-GYN who fled Texas for an abortion will be at the State of the Union

DALLAS — Next week, Dallas mom and OBGYN Austin Dennard will be in Washington, D.C. for President Biden’s State of the Union. 

Her story gained national attention after she joined a lawsuit filed by several Texas women to sue the state over the medical exception in its anti-abortion law.

“It does get a little bit better to talk about,” Dr. Dennard said through tears. “But it still does bring up a lot of sadness.”

In 2022, just after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, Dr. Dennard learned her baby boy’s head would not fully form. Anencephaly is a lethal fetal diagnosis, and continuing her pregnancy, Dr. Dennard said, would be dangerous and jeopardize her ability to have more children. 

But under strict Texas law, she said she knew she would not be able to get an abortion here.

“My life wasn’t immediately in danger, I wasn’t hemorrhaging,” she told WFAA.

“I wasn’t infected, I wasn’t septic.”

Dr. Dennard eventually went to the East Coast to get an abortion. 

“I was carrying a pregnancy I had no control over, in my own body. It felt like I was carrying a pregnancy that belonged to the state, because as long as I was on Texas soil, I couldn’t get the care that I needed, I had no voice. I had no choice.”

Coming back to Texas to practice as an OBGYN, she said, “was and has been truly as traumatizing as having to flee the state as a patient.”

“We’re having to navigate, ‘how do we keep you safe and take good care of you, now that the state has completely abandoned you? My colleagues are afraid to say the word abortion, we don’t know if we’re going to get reported for saying that word,” she continued.

“I could get my license taken away, I could be thrown in jail, fined thousands of dollars.”

Six months ago, Dr. Dennard gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

“What if we hadn’t been able to get the care that we needed?” she asked. 

“[My baby] probably wouldn’t be here…and he’s perfect. And I can’t imagine my life without him.”