--- title: "Babies Being Found in Dumpsters After Texas Abortion Ban" description: "In the aftermath of the Texas abortion ban, documented cases of infant abandonment have surged in the state." date: "2025-01-02" modified: "2025-01-02" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/babies-dumpsters-abortion-ban" categories: - "Developments" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "abortion" - "abortion ban" - "healthcare" --- # Babies Being Found in Dumpsters After Texas Abortion Ban ![In the aftermath of the Texas abortion ban, documented cases of infant abandonment have surged in the state.]() *Overhead POV shot looking down at a protest sign laying in the grass \Image: Getty Images\* Two years on, the consequences of the Texas abortion ban are almost too grim to contemplate: amidst a [surge in infant mortality](), babies are being found discarded in dumpsters, ditches, curbsides, and garbage trucks, the [*Washington Post* reports](). This year, there have been at least 18 cases of abandoned infants in the state, according to Texas Department of Family and Protective Services figures cited by *WaPo*. That's more than double the number documented ten years ago, the newspaper notes. "There apparently has been... a little bit of an epidemic on this," said a sheriff's official for Houston's surrounding county, where the body of an infant was found in a roadside ditch this summer, as quoted by *WaPo*. The morbid discovery was made by a landscaping crew. The Texas ban, which went into effect in 2021, is considered the most draconian in the nation. It makes no exceptions even in cases of rape or incest, leaving women with no legal means of stopping unwanted pregnancies. And according to independent research from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund, the percentage of women without access to healthcare is the highest in the country, per *WaPo*. The already desperate circumstances are even worse for pregnant undocumented immigrants, who may avoid going to a clinic to seek care for fear of being deported. "All of these intersectional things could be leading to this," Blake Rocap, a lawyer with the Sissy Farenthold Reproductive Justice Defense Project at the University of Texas at Austin, told *WaPo*. The issue is exacerbated by the state's "abysmal" access to prenatal care, he added, "particularly for people without private insurance, particularly for people without immigration status." In addition to the harrowing rise of infant abandonment, Texas currently has the eighth highest rate of teenage births, per US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, with over 20 cases per 1,000 teens aged between 15 and 19, compared to 13.6 nationwide. It also has the 13th worst [maternal mortality]() in the country, with around 28 deaths for every 100,000 live births. All the while, the state's Republican leadership has slashed funding for women's health and reproductive care. But the problem isn't only the abortion ban and the poor access to care, according to critics. It's also the lack of education on the issue. State lawmakers have continued to cut funding for an awareness campaign that would inform mothers what to do when they decide they can't keep their baby, the *WaPo* said, despite enjoying a budget surplus well over $30 billion. Texas has "safe haven" laws that let mothers anonymously relinquish newborn babies at designated locations without risk of prosecution — measures that are often used to downplay the cruelty of the abortion ban. But little to no effort is being made to let women know that these alternatives exist, let alone fund them. This is plain even to opponents of abortion. "Women don't know what to do," Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a former congresswoman and director of The Woodlands township, told *WaPo*. "We have to educate, to give them more choices, to give them a chance to provide a loving home for their child." **More on abortion:** *[Hundreds More Babies Are Dying Since Banning Abortion]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()