AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) — A new report published Wednesday details the story of a 28-year-old Texas woman who died from an infection after doctors allegedly delayed treating her miscarriage for about 40 hours, reigniting concerns about the state’s strict abortion laws.
Josseli Barnica arrived at a Houston hospital at 17 weeks pregnant in Sept. 2, 2021, experiencing severe cramping and bleeding, according to the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica. The next day, an ultrasound confirmed she was experiencing a miscarriage.
However, Barnica reportedly told her husband that doctors could not intervene.
“They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” the husband, whose name was not disclosed, told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”
As she waited, Barnica’s cervix remained open, leaving her uterus exposed to bacteria, according to the outlet. After a fetal heartbeat was no longer detected, she delivered the fetus with medical assistance and was discharged later that day.
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On Sept. 7, as her condition worsened, Barnica’s husband brought her back to the hospital, where she died from a sepsis infection.
Barnica’s story has reinvigorated the concern that Texas’ abortion ban does not give doctors enough autonomy to treat pregnancy complications.
Rep. Colin Allred, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who has made abortion access a central tenant of his campaign, quickly used Barnica’s story as a critique of Sen. Ted Cruz’s anti-abortion stance.
“Josseli Barnica should be alive today but because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban, Texas women have been denied the life-saving health care they need,” Allred wrote on social media.
Sen. Ted Cruz, left, and Rep. Colin Allred are pictured in these side-by-side images. (Photos: Getty Images)
Cruz called the story “heartbreaking,” but he said Texas’ law is not to blame.
“I’ve read the story here, and the facts of the case seem heartbreaking. That this woman lost her life is truly a tragedy,” Cruz told reporters after a rally in Georgetown on Wednesday.
“The Texas law makes clear that any procedure that is necessary to save the life of a mother can be done and should be done,” Cruz added. “We don’t know all the details of what happened here, but it is critical that we do everything necessary to save the lives of moms and we grieve with the family at the tragedy that occurred here.”
Texas law prohibits abortion in nearly all cases, without exceptions for rape or incest. Physicians may be punished for performing abortions with six-figure fines, the loss of their medical license, and prison time.
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An abortion is permitted under the law if, “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment,” the pregnant person has a life-threatening condition caused or worsened by the pregnancy that poses a risk of death or serious impairment to a major bodily function, making the abortion necessary.
Physicians have sued to argue that language is too vague, claiming the “reasonable medical judgment” standard is too subjective to allow them to act freely without concern for their own liability.
In May, the Texas Supreme Court rejected those concerns, ruling that the abortion ban’s exceptions are acceptable and permit abortions before imminent emergencies.
“The law does not require a woman to surrender her life or to first suffer serious bodily injury before an abortion may be performed,” the court wrote.
According to October polling from the Texas Politics Project, 7% of Texas likely voters say abortion/women’s rights is the most important issue to their vote, trailing the economy, immigration/border security, and inflation/cost of living.
