In many ways, “Zulawski v. Texas” is a film about America itself and the governmental failures that got us to this moment. Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women and pregnant women have struggled to access proper reproductive healthcare. This urgent and necessary documentary exposes the clear evil of a ruthless government that is fixated on total control over its citizens’ bodies and unfazed by the suffering that results.
Amanda Zulawski’s water broke at 18 weeks pregnant, but she was denied an emergency abortion, went into septic shock, and had to spend three days in the ICU. She had already named her unborn daughter Willow, but the child never made it. As a result of this horrific ordeal, Zulawski’s fallopian tubes were damaged and had to be reconstructed. With no hope of having another child, she and her husband Josh were forced to turn to surrogacy to expand their family. To stop this from happening to other women and pregnant women, Zulawski decided to sue the state of Texas with the help of Molly Duane, a senior attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Soon, another woman with a similar heartbreaking story joined in. Samantha Casiano was denied an abortion when she found out at 20 weeks pregnant that her fetus had no chance of survival. Unable to take time off work to undergo surgery out of state, Casiano had no choice but to nurse her child until birth and watch her child struggle to breathe for four hours before dying. Now a mother herself, Cassiano was forced to bury her child in grief alongside her husband and children.
Zulawski and Cassiano represent two demographics of women doomed by the abortion ban: childless women desperate to start a family, and mothers who truly want to grow their family but are forced to give up because the government makes the process unnecessarily painful. And not just patients, but doctors too face the threat of prison time for simply providing care. Prior to the events of the film, Dr. Austin Dennard was forced to leave the state to get an abortion after learning her pregnancy was diagnosed with a fatal disease. Dennard, an obstetrician-gynecologist, was upset by the fact that he and his colleagues could not provide adequate care. Just as he was denied an abortion, Dennard was also forced to turn away his patients, encouraging them to go out of state for treatment. Now, Dennard is pregnant again and is determined to stand up for all doctors who are being threatened by the Texas government and for pregnant women who are crying out for basic reproductive health care.
Zulawski v. Texas follows Zulawski, Casiano, Dr. Dennard and Duane as they sue the Texas government for its neglect of women and pregnant women across the state. Directors Maisie Crowe and Abby Perrault show us every aspect of the legal battle they face, from studying and preparing their case to taking the stand and facing questioning from cold-hearted prosecutors who only have profit in mind. Thwarted at every turn by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, these brave women strive to take their fight for access to medically necessary abortions public.
Their stories are shocking to watch, and the filmmakers allow us to see the emotional vulnerability of these women and their families. Late in the film, after receiving devastating news, Zulawski is thrown into her husband’s arms; the embrace drowns out the microphone, distorting the sound for a moment as she sobs. At Cassiano’s home, her husband leaves her in grief. Traumatized by the experience of burying her son Halo, Cassiano has a tubal ligation to ensure she never has to go through such pain again.
But there are moments of hope. Zulawski’s parents were understandably shaken by what their daughter had gone through, and have since changed their views on the Republican Party; Zulawski’s mother has vowed to never vote Republican again. It may be a small victory, but it’s a stark and harsh reminder that American politics is based more on tribalism than on actually rigorously engaging with and examining the policies that shape the lives of so many people in this country. Decisions are often made to fit an overall political aesthetic, whether or not it’s good for the people.
When governments restrict reproductive health, lawmakers are essentially asserting that the fetus is the property of the state at the time of conception. But when Cassiano was forced to bury her baby, she received no financial compensation for the burial, funeral, or gravestone. Neither she nor her husband received grief counseling for this enormous and avoidable loss. When one of her children asked how the abortion affected her daughter, she responded that the halo “would have made it to heaven sooner.” If pro-life legislation is so invested in the souls of children, how can they argue against this line of thinking? It makes no sense. But perhaps there is no logic to the politics of cruelty and domination. And history repeats itself. Hopefully, films like this one can help us break this cycle, because something has to be sacrificed.
Rating: A
“Zulawski vs. Texas” premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and is currently under consideration for distribution.
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