DALLAS — Dallas mom and OBGYN Austin Dennard will be in Washington, D.C. for President Biden's State of the Union on Thursday.
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. 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," she told WFAA. "I wasn’t hemorrhaging. 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."
Dr. Dennard will attend the State of the Union address as a guest of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. On Tuesday, Allred won the Texas Democratic primary for U.S. Senate. He'll next face off against Ted Cruz in a November election.
In a statement announcing his intention to invite Dr. Dennard to the State of the Union, Allred said: "I am so inspired by Dr. Dennard’s bravery and her resilience in the face of Texas’s cruel abortion ban. No Texas woman should have to endure the hurdles that Dr. Dennard did to get the life-saving care she needed. I admire her willingness to tell her story and to fight so that other women don’t have to flee their own state just to get the health care that they need. I am honored to have her as my guest for the State of the Union as we work to protect the freedoms of Texas women and their right to make decisions about their own bodies.”