AUSTIN, Texas (OSV News) — Five women who said they were denied abortions under Texas law despite pregnancy complications filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion ban, while pro-life leaders defended the law, saying it already takes into account life-threatening situations.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges to state restrictions on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June that overturned the high court’s legal precedent that had made abortion access a constitutional right.
The Texas lawsuit, filed March 6 in Travis County District Court, said the Lone Star State’s abortion law, among the strictest in the country, is making Texas doctors turn away some pregnant women who experience pregnancy complications out of fear of violating the law.
“This is the first lawsuit of its kind. It is the first lawsuit in which individual women have sued a state for the harm that they endured, because abortion care has been criminalized in the wake of Roe’s reversal,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a March 7 statement about the lawsuit. “We are seeking a ruling from the court that clearly permits doctors to provide a pregnant patient with abortion care when in the doctor’s good faith judgment, and in consultation with the patient, the doctor determines that the patient has a medical condition that poses a risk to their life or health.”
Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff in the case, said she developed blood poisoning before she underwent an abortion in Texas. Four other plaintiffs said they traveled out of state after doctors recommended an abortion they said they would not perform in Texas.
But Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, said in a March 9 statement, “Let’s be very clear: every pro-life law in the country allows necessary and timely medical treatment to save the life of a pregnant woman in an emergency.”
Dannenfelser cited data from the group’s research arm, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which found that state abortion restrictions permit the procedure in “rare and heartbreaking circumstances when it is necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman.”
Dr. Ingrid Skop, a board-certified OB-GYN, who has practiced in Texas, and senior fellow and director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute, said, “As an OB-GYN who’s spent nearly 30 years caring for women and babies, I am saddened and troubled by reports of mothers not receiving the care they require.”
“Under the laws of Texas and all other pro-life states, doctors are advised to exercise their reasonable medical judgment to determine if a woman needs to be delivered of her unborn child in order to protect her life,” Skop said. “Texas law allows this intervention and does not require delay in necessary care for ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, or a life-threatening complication.”
“(N)o matter how many times we correct the record, pro-abortion activists continue spreading misinformation, confusing physicians and the general public,” Skop added.
“The solution they offer is abortion on demand until birth, which is wildly out of step with most Americans,” she said. “These rhetorical games put women’s lives at risk and need to stop.”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on Twitter @kgscanlon.
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