AUSTIN (NEXSTAR) – A new report published Wednesday details the story of a 28-year-old Texas woman who died from an infection after doctors allegedly delayed treating her miscarriage for about 40 hours, reigniting concerns about the state’s strict abortion laws .

Josseli Barnica arrived at a Houston hospital 17 weeks pregnant on September 2, 2021, experiencing severe cramping and bleeding, according to the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica. The next day, an ultrasound confirmed that she was having a miscarriage.

However, Barnica reportedly told her husband that doctors could not intervene.

“They had to wait until there were no heartbeats,” the husband, whose name was not revealed, told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to have an abortion.”

While waiting, Barnica’s cervix remained open, leaving her uterus exposed to bacteria, according to the outlet. After the fetal heartbeat was no longer detected, she delivered the fetus with medical assistance and was discharged that same day.

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On September 7, as her condition worsened, Barnica’s husband took her back to the hospital, where she died from a sepsis infection.

Barnica’s story has revitalized concerns that Texas’ abortion ban does not give doctors enough autonomy to treat pregnancy complications.

Rep. Colin Allred, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate who has made abortion access a central issue of his campaign, quickly used Barnica’s story as a critique of Sen. Ted Cruz’s anti-abortion stance.

“Josseli Barnica should be alive today, but because of Ted Cruz’s cruel abortion ban, Texas women have been denied the medical care they need to save lives,” Allred wrote on social media.

Cruz called the story “heartbreaking” but said Texas law is not to blame.

“I have read the story here and the facts of the case seem heartbreaking. That this woman lost her life is truly a tragedy,” Cruz told reporters after a rally in Georgetown on Wednesday.

“Texas law makes it clear that any procedure necessary to save a mother’s life can and should be performed,” Cruz added. “We don’t know all the details of what happened here, but it is essential that we do everything necessary to save the lives of the mothers and grieve with the family for the tragedy that occurred here.”

Texas law prohibits abortion in almost all casesno exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors can be punished for performing abortions with six-figure fines, loss of their medical license, and prison terms.

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The law allows an abortion if, “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment,” the pregnant person has a life-threatening condition caused or worsened by the pregnancy that poses a risk of death or serious impairment of a major bodily function, making that abortion necessary.

Doctors have sued arguing that the language is too vague, claiming that the “reasonable medical judgment” standard is too subjective to allow them to act freely without concern for their own liability.

In May, the Texas Supreme Court rejected those concerns, rule that exceptions to the abortion ban are acceptable and allow abortions in the face of imminent emergencies.

“The law does not require a woman to give up her life or first suffer serious bodily injury before an abortion can be performed,” the court wrote.

According to the Texas Politics Project’s October poll, 7% of likely Texas voters say abortion/women’s rights is the most important issue for their vote, behind the economy, immigration/border security and inflation/cost of living.

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