At least 18 babies have been abandoned in Texas this year, more than double the number of infants that were deserted a decade ago across the state.
The epidemic is thought to be linked to abortion restrictions enacted in 2021, according to The Washington Post, and compounded with difficult access to prenatal care. Texas has the highest percentage of women without health insurance in the U.S., the outlet reported.
In Houston, police have managed to identify a parent in four of the six abandoned baby cases in the city this year. One only person, Everilda Cux-Ajtzalam, an 18-year-old woman from Guatemala, had been charged with felony child abandonment as of mid-December.
The woman claimed her knowledge of sex education was limited and said a relative raped her. She only realized she was pregnant seven months after the alleged incident. The relative denied wrongdoing in an interview with The Post .
Parking lot security footage caught the migrant teen on camera giving birth to the baby and then discarding it in a dumpster, prosecutors said. She feared going to a clinic due to stories she’d heard of officials instigating deportation proceedings against migrants.