The Texas Supreme Court Friday rejected a petition By women seeking clarity on the state’s strict ban on abortion.
In its unanimous decision, the court said existing medical exceptions to the ban were broad enough to withstand a constitutional challenge. A group of women who were refused abortions by the state The lawsuit was filed in Marchand they had argued that because the language of the ban regarding medical exceptions was clear, they had not received life-saving care while they were pregnant.
Texas bans abortions after about six weeks, with a limited medical exception for pregnancies that threaten the mother’s life or risk impairing a major bodily function.
The state’s high court ruled that “the law does not require that a woman’s death be imminent or that she first suffer from a physical disability” and declared that “Texas law allows a doctor to assess the risk posed by a life-threatening illness before a woman suffers the consequences of that risk.
The ruling says the plaintiffs are “simply wrong in this legal assessment” that a doctor would then say “but the law will not allow me to perform an abortion in these circumstances.”
Texas doctors face stiff penalties if they perform an abortion that doesn’t meet the criteria for a medical exception: fines of at least $100,000 and up to 99 years in prison. Additionally, anyone who “aids and abets” an abortion is subject to a minimum fine of $10,000 which can be imposed by any person under unusual conditions. enforcement mechanism.
The main complainant, Amanda Zurawski, who has since become a Biden campaign supporter, said in a statement Friday that she was “outraged” by the decision. “Every day Texas people are told they have no choice,” she said.
Attorney General of Texas Ken Paxtonwho challenged the lawsuit, said in a statement that he “will continue to defend the laws passed by the Legislature and uphold the values of the Texas people by doing everything in my power to protect mothers and babies.”
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Zurawski v. Texas
Zurawski v. The Texas case was filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of at least 20 women suffering from medical emergencies and two doctors and is the most significant legal challenge to the state’s strict abortion ban.
A Travis County judge has ruled that women who have experienced pregnancy complications are exempt from the state’s abortion ban, prompting a legal injunction. Paxton’s office appealed the decision to the all-Republican state Supreme Court, which stayed the injunction.
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday overturned the lower court’s decision, saying it “departed from the law as written without constitutional justification.” The decision was unanimous, but Justice Brett Busby issued a concurring opinion that left the door open for a broader challenge to the law.
The lawsuit was not filed to overturn the Texas law, but to seek clarification on what constitutes a medical exemption. This was thought to be the first challenge to an abortion ban since the 2022 Dobbs decision by the United States Supreme Court, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case which established the federal right to abortion.
The court said Zurawski was wrongly denied an abortion when her water broke while she was 17 weeks pregnant and the fetus still had a heartbeat. Zurawski was sent home, but doctors performed the abortion days later after she suffered septic shock. The infection caused one of her fallopian tubes to close, making it more difficult to conceive.
“Ms. Zurawski’s agonizing wait to be ‘sick enough’ for induction, the development of sepsis, and her permanent physical injuries were not the result of the statute’s requirements,” the ruling said. Additionally, the ruling states that “the law does not require a woman to give up her life or first suffer serious bodily injury before she can perform an abortion.”
The ruling also notes that during the last legislative session, the Texas Legislature changed the law to “make clear that a physician who performs an abortion in response to such a diagnosis” like the one Zurawski suffered “is not liable “.
Although Parliament amended the law and granted legal defense to doctors, abortion rights advocates say it did not sufficiently clarify the law.
Last year, Zurawski gave poignant testimony with two other women who were denied abortions in Texas, as well as a doctor and two medical experts.
Other abortion cases in Texas
In November 2023, Kate Cox filed an emergency lawsuit seeking an injunction against the law when she discovered that her pregnancy was “unlikely to end with a healthy baby” and that due to two previous cesareans, the continuation of the pregnancy put her in danger. serious complications that threatened “his life and future fertility”.
An Austin judge ruled that Cox could terminate her pregnancy, but that ruling was put on hold after Paxton appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court. Cox, who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time of the trial, eventually left the state to have an abortion.
Following a petition from Austin-area lobbyists, the Texas Medical Board is considering proposed guidelines for how it investigates complaints about banned abortions. The agency is currently considering public comments ahead of its planned meeting in June, at which the issue could be decided.