ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS: ZURAWSKI V TEXAS – Review by Liz Braun

By Liz Braun

Near the end of the documentary Zurawski v Texas, a legal expert says that the fight for reproductive rights in America is nationwide because, “This is what happens when you ban abortion — and it’s not what people think.”

What happens when you ban abortion includes infant and maternal death, maternal infertility, and unspeakable illness, suffering and loss, as the film shows.

(The documentary isn’t long enough to show other results of an abortion ban: 10-year-olds having babies, for example, or victims of rape and incest forced to bear their assailant’s babies.)

Directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, Zurawski v Texas is a beautifully constructed film about the fight undertaken by some brave women and a fearless attorney to sue the state of Texas in an attempt to regain reproductive rights. The plaintiffs went forward on behalf of women everywhere, mostly in the hope of sparing others the pain they were put through.

The lawyer leading the charge is Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York City. She spends a lot of time with cases in Texas, because even before Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022, Texas had managed to effectively ban abortion via a law that put a bounty on the head of anyone who helped a Texan get an abortion.

The plaintiffs include Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died of sepsis when doctors were restricted by Texas law from treating her properly after she began to miscarry. Her ability to have children is now compromised.

Then there’s Samantha Casiano, who was told early on in her pregnancy that her daughter had a fatal condition and could not live; denied an abortion — the appropriate medical response in these cases — Casiano had to carry the child to term, give birth, and then hold her newborn daughter until the baby died.

That took four hours, during which time the baby suffered horribly, gasping for breath throughout.

Dr. Austin Dennard, herself an obstetrician/gynaecologist in Texas, had a similar pregnancy to that of Samantha Casiano: she learned at an early ultrasound that the baby was not viable.

Unlike Casiano, Dr. Dennard and her husband — also an ob-gyn —had the means to leave Texas and get the abortion they needed in another state; Dennard worried that her husband might still be charged under Texas law for aiding and abetting her abortion.

The lawsuit against the state inspired Dr. Dennard to speak up and get involved.

What happens in Zurawski v Texas begins with Amanda Zurawski appearing before a senate judiciary committee where she explains her traumatic experience before a passel of old white men. The details of her case are painful to hear; nonetheless, Zurawski mentions how badly the senators behaved, and in particular how Lindsey Graham rolled his eyes after she said it was dangerous to be pregnant. Which, of course, it is.

Then, when a suit is launched against the state, other Texan women of various races and socio-economic status step up to be heard and to appear in court to explain what happened to them because of the state’s abortion laws. As the legal case progresses, it is heartening to see these women bond over their shared experiences, but this is a tough movie to watch. Samantha Casiano is a particularly affecting witness; the film shows how it makes her physically sick in court to have to say out loud what happened to her.

Sane judges in Zurawski v Texas rule that the law is too restrictive, and that some abortions can happen; within hours, victory is stamped out as appeals are launched to render those decisions null and void.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton comes across (again) as a particular villain here.

One of the few positive moments in the movie is hearing Amanda Zurawski’s formerly Republican-voting mother explain how she will vote differently in future. But any sane person watching this movie can only weep as various august bodies (Texas Medical Board included) do their best to pass the buck on this issue — even as women die, even as women choose to be sterilized rather than ever go through this kind of trauma again.

These are not isolated cases. In September, Amber Nicole Thurman died in Georgia of infection after doctors there failed to do a timely D&C out of fear of the state’s anti-abortion laws.

The most troubling thing about Zurowski v Texas is that the people who most need to see it won’t see it. This is a film that should be required viewing in high schools nationwide.

It opens October 25 in theatres in New York, Los Angeles and Texas, and God willing, it will eventually be shown free on public television everywhere in the U.S.