When I talked to Amanda Zurawski in early August, she had just finished: a Women For Harris call for Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris; a speaking stint in Houston for U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Colin Allred; and a video shoot that will appear at the Democratic National Convention later this month. To most, that would be a hectic schedule—but Zurawski considers it a “rare quiet” week. The 37-year-old Austinite has become one of the leading public faces in the battle for reproductive rights, not just in Texas but nationally. That means near-constant travel as a campaign surrogate, first for President Joe Biden and now for Harris. “I travel whenever and wherever they need me,” she said.
Zurawski has made it a mission to share her own tragic story as a way to educate others about the suffering inflicted by draconian abortion bans. At 18 weeks pregnant, she learned she would lose her daughter due to health complications. After being denied potentially life-saving pregnancy termination in 2022 due to Texas’ strict abortion bans—which only offer ambiguous medical exceptions for patients and punish doctors with up to life in prison if they perform the procedure—Zurawksi developed sepsis and was pushed to the brink of death. Following her harrowing ordeal, she went on to file Zurawski v. Texas, a historic lawsuit later joined by some 20 other women who shared similar stories, to force Texas officials to clarify the vague medical emergency exceptions within the law. Ultimately, the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court rejected the demand for clarification this summer.
Disappointed as Zurawski is, the loss hasn’t deterred her from staying active as an abortion rights advocate. The Observer spoke with her about her journey from trauma to political activism to, perhaps, one day running for political office in Texas.
