Republican Sen. Ted Cruz doesn’t want to talk about Texas’ restrictive abortion ban

Earlier this month, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dodged a question from an interviewer about abortion rights. His evasiveness suggests that his record of opposing abortion access could be a liability for his reelection campaign.

Currently, all abortions are banned in Texas except for in cases where the pregnant person’s life is at risk. Earlier this year, Texas’ restrictive abortion ban made headlines when Kate Cox, a 31-year-old woman from the Dallas area facing pregnancy complications, was forced to flee the state to get abortion care. 

Cruz sat for an interview with KXAS News on July 1. The interviewer, Phil Prazan, asked Cruz if he was comfortable with pregnant people needing to leave the state in order to get reproductive services. Cruz responded by talking about democracy.

“What the Supreme Court said in Dobbs,” Cruz said, “is that abortion is an issue that divides us. We have real, good faith, genuine disagreements … Under our constitution, the way we resolve issues like that is through the ballot box.” 

Prazan asked Cruz a second time if he was comfortable with Texas’ abortion ban. Cruz tried to change the topic to in vitro fertilization. 

“In terms of what the federal government does, I’ll tell you the legislation I’ve introduced,” Cruz said. “I’ve introduced legislation to protect in vitro fertilization.” 

Despite his non-answers, Cruz has a record of backing anti-abortion measures. In 2020, he signed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. In 2021, he said Texas’ proposed restrictions on abortion were “perfectly reasonable.” These positions put Cruz out of step with the 60% of Texas voters who say abortion should be “available in all or most cases.” 

Two days before Cruz’s KXAS interview, Lauren Miller, another woman who was forced to flee Texas to get an abortion, spoke at a Texas Democratic Party event in Dallas. She said Cruz was to blame for her desperate situation.

“Ted Cruz pushed for these bans and put anti-choice justices on the Supreme Court despite Texans like me begging him not to support policies that harm us,” Miller said. “This ban, the reality that we are living through — it’s on him.”

Cruz’s Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, has made protecting abortion rights a part of his campaign platform. At a June 24 event marking the 2nd anniversary the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, Allred lambasted Cruz for helping to elect legislators and appoint judges who oppose abortion rights.

“In many ways he was the architect of the situation we are in right now,” Allred said.

A Cruz spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions for this story.