TEXAS — It’s been two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, curtailing women's rights to an abortion. Lawmakers from across the state are reacting to the anniversary with statements highlighting the decision’s effects on Texans.

In a post to X, formerly Twitter, Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, said the decision “laid the foundation for Texas to institute a cruel abortion ban.” He added that he would “fight to restore…reproductive freedom.” Allred is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, chair of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus, on Monday said the state’s abortion ban has “imperiled the lives of countless Texans.”

“Texas women deserve better. Texas moms deserve better. We deserve to live in communities with access to the full spectrum of women's healthcare services,” the statement reads.

Theresa Boisseu, who is running for election to the U.S. House to represent District 10, also released a statement on her website stating that the anniversary “never gets any easier.”

“It’s been two years now; I can’t help but think about the thousands of women who have been denied the dignity, and the right, of choice during that time.

“In Texas alone, over 26,000 women have been left with no choice after becoming pregnant as a result of rape. There are brave women such as Kate Cox and Amanda Zurowski who have shared their heartbreaking stories and still been denied care by Republicans.

“This will not get better, until we make it better.”

U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, said in a statement that “since the Dobbs decision, the health care crisis in Texas and around the country has only gotten worse.”

“These attacks on women’s health have generated fear and confusion for women and their loved ones, and it is critical that we find a way to protect them. Access to abortion in Texas has been virtually eliminated — including in cases of rape or incest. That is why this Congress, I reintroduced the Ensuring Women’s Right to Reproductive Freedom Act, which protects the constitutional right to travel across state lines, including for abortion. Republicans in the House have refused to bring my bill to the floor to protect this constitutional right. 

“These policies are an assault on our freedoms, and we cannot let this happen in the United States of America,” she said.  “It is critical that Congress act and restore the framework to protect women’s rights to make their own decisions about their bodies, their families, and their futures that Americans relied on for the last 50 years. I will continue doing everything I can to restore the health, privacy, dignity, and freedom of women in Texas and across our country.”

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the anniversary, which he declared Sanctity of Life Day on the first anniversary of the overturning. 

“The legacy wrought by Roe v. Wade and other illegitimate partisan judicial decisions directly led to the deaths of an estimated 70 million children,” said Paxton. “Following the overturning of that disastrous legal precedent, I instituted the Sanctity of Life Day within the OAG to serve as a day of remembrance and a celebration of the progress we have made in protecting innocent life.

“However, the work is far from completed,” he said. “The Biden Administration continues to use unlawful agency regulations and other levers of power to force states to institute its radical abortion agenda even when it violates state laws. I will never stop defending the sanctity of life against these unconstitutional attempts to undermine Texas’s life-affirming laws.”