Abbie Perrault, Amanda Zurawski, Austin Dennard, Autumn Katz, Cheri Eid, documentaries, film festivals, Josh Zurawski, Luis Villasana, Maisie Crow, Mike Eid, Molly Duane, movies, reviews, Sam Zurawski, Samantha Casiano, Telluride Film Festival, Texas, Zurawski v Texas
November 5, 2024
by Carla Hay
Directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault
Culture Representation: Taking place in Texas and in Indiana in 2023, the documentary film “Zurawski v Texas” features a predominantly white group of people (and some Latin people) who are connected in some way in the lawsuit Zurawski v. Texas about abortion and reproductive rights in the state of Texas.
Culture Clash: The lawsuit’s plaintiffs, including lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski, want to repeal Texas’ strict abortion laws to include the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy that puts the mother’s life in danger or where the pregnancy is ending through a miscarriage.
Culture Audience: “Zurawski v Texas” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about abortion that examine personal stories about abortion as it pertains to health care and reproductive rights.
Although the candid documentary “Zurawski v Texas” is focused on three plaintiffs and their attorney in their battle for reproductive rights in Texas, the movie sounds the alarm about how restricting abortion is a crisis-level health care issue in the U.S. The movie also serves as a predictor of what could happen if more states pass abortion laws that are similar to the abortion laws in Texas. The plaintiffs (who are all women from Texas) want their lawsuit to be a warning of how reproductive rights that are at risk can be harmful to health care and family planning.
Directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, “Zurawski v Texas” had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. The documentary revolves around one particular case, but the tone of the movie is that this case has reverberations and implications for untold numbers of people who are affected by abortion in the United States. The anti-abortion laws in Texas became stricter after 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Curt overturned the landmark 1973 case Roe vs. Wade that guaranteed federal protections for the right to choose to have an abortion.
There were several plaintiffs in the 2023 Zurawski v. Texas lawsuit, but the three plaintiffs featured in the documentary are the plaintiffs who testified in the case and whose courtroom testimonies are featured in the documentary. The featured three plaintiffs are:
- Amanda Zurawski was pregnant with her first child—a daughter named Willow—who was dying during a miscarriage during the 18th week of the pregnancy. Under Texas state law, Zurawski could not immediately terminate the miscarriage pregnancy. She went into septic shock, which is the only reason why the pregnancy was eventually terminated. This medical emergency has had long-term consequences for Zurawski’s reproductive health. The documentary shows how Zurawsk finds out more traumatic news about her ability to get pregnant again.
- Samantha Casiano was 20 weeks pregnant with a daughter named Halo when she was told that Halo had anencephaly, a fatal fetal diagnosis that meant Halo would either be born dead or not have long to live after birth. Casiano was also not allowed to terminate the pregnancy under Texas law, and she could not afford to travel to a state where she could get this medical procedure. Knowing that Halo would die, Casiano had to give birth to Halo, who lived for just four hours after being born. “Zurawski v Texas” shows the funeral of Halo and the devastating effects on Casiano and her family.
- Dr. Austin Dennard, an obstetrician/gynecologist, was 11 weeks pregnant when she found out that the pregnancy would not result in the child being born alive. Dennard was prevented from terminating the pregnancy due to Texas law. However, she had the resources to travel to another state where the procedure was legal. Dennard became a plaintiff in the Zurawski v Texas case to advocate for people in Texas who cannot afford to travel to other states to get legal and safe abortions. “Zurawski v Texas” has footage of what happened with another pregnancy that Dennard had during the filming of the documentary.
The lead attorney in the case is Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney from the Center for Reproductive Rights. Duane says of Zurawski and why the Center for Reproductive Rights wanted to take on this case: “What happened to her was so shocking. We connected with her and instantly clicked.” Duane adds that Texas attorney general Ken Paxton has been “exceptionally cruel” in his prosecution of abortion cases.
After the lawsuit was filed in March 2023, more people came forward with their horror stories about being denied the abortion care that they medically needed, and they wanted to be added as plaintiffs to the lawsuit. Duane’s preparations for the case are chronicled in the documentary, including her nervously rehearsing her opening arguments. Duane comes across as compassionate, principled and deeply committed to the fighting for the rights of her clients.
However, the documentary makes it looks like Duane is a crusading lawyer who did almost all of the work herself, which is definitely not realistic for a legal case of this size. Duane had a lot of behind-the-scenes help that is not adequately shown in the documentary. Autumn Katz, an associate director of U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive Rights, is seen briefly in the documentary, which could have been more informative about who else helped out in this high-profile case.
“Zurawski v Texas” has a TV procedural style to its editing that makes the documentary look a bit formulaic. However, the documentary is at its best when it takes an intimate look at how these abortion stories affect not only the plaintiffs but also people in the plaintiffs’ families. Dennard’s family is not interviewed. However, Amanda’s husband Josh Zurawski, Josh’s brother Sam Zurawski, and Amanda’s parents Mike Eid and Cheri Eid (who both live in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Amanda grew up) are all interviewed. Luis Villasana, the partner of Casiano and the father of Halo, is also interviewed in the documentary.
Cheri Eid comments on Amanda’s traumatic abortion experience: “I’m a changed person because of it.” Cheri adds that she’s been a lifelong Republican but will vote differently in the next election because of the abortion issues that she has seen affect families. In the documentary, Amanda confesses that she was in recovery for an eating disorder before she got pregnant. However, Amanda says that the eating disorder has come back because of the trauma she went through over how Texas law made her pregnancy result in her having long-term reproductive damage that was preventable.
Some of what’s in this documentary might be triggering or upsetting to some viewers. A warning to sensitive viewers: Halo’s body is shown in the documentary’s funeral scene. And it might be hard to watch the scenes with Casiano’s other children coping with the devastating loss of their baby sister Halo. Casiano’s testimony is especially heart-wrenching, as she vomits in the witness stand when she has to tell what happened when she saw Halo suffer before Halo died.
“Zurawski v Texas” might not change the minds of people on either side of the abortion debate. However, the documentary gives an effective up-close look at how abortion laws in Texas affect decisions that have long-term effects on families and on the health of individuals. Amanda Zurawski’s April 2023 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is partially shown in the documentary, sums up the message that “Zurawski v Texas” has for lawmakers: “Being pregnant is difficult enough. We don’t need you to make it more terrifying and, frankly, downright dangerous to create life in this country.”
HiddenLight Productions, Story Force Entertainment and Out of Nowhere released “Zurawski v Texas” in select U.S. cinemas on October 25, 2024.