A Texas judge ruled Friday that the state’s abortion ban has proven too restrictive for women who have serious complications during pregnancy and should allow exceptions without fearing criminal charges for doctors.

It’s the first ruling to downplay the Texas law since it went into effect in 2022 and marks an important victory for abortion rights advocates, who see the case as a potential role model for loosening limitations imposed in other states. with republican governments.

State District Judge Jessica Mangrum’s ruling included an injunction that prevents Texas from applying the rule to doctors who, in their “good faith judgment,” terminate a pregnancy that, due to complications, creates a risk of infection or is not safe for the mother.

But the legal action was immediately blocked by the appeal filed in the Texas Supreme Court, the state attorney’s office said. “The trial court’s injunction is ineffective and the status quo remains in place,” spokeswoman Paige Willey said in an email.

The injunction also applied to women suffering from a condition “aggravated by pregnancy” that cannot be effectively treated during pregnancy and covered cases where the fetus suffered from conditions that made survival after birth unlikely.

“For the first time in a long time I cried with joy when I heard the news,” Amanda Zurawski, the woman leading the lawsuit, said in a statement. “This is exactly why we did this. This is why we go through pain and trauma over and over again to share our experiences and the damage caused by these horrible laws.”

Mangrum’s ruling established that the precautionary measure would be in force until the conclusion of the case, whose trial is expected to begin on March 25.

But the state’s immediate appeal “stops an activist Austin judge’s attempt to strike down Texas’ abortion law pending the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling,” First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said in a statement. release.

The immediate repercussions of Jessica Mangrum’s decision were unclear in a state where all abortion clinics have closed in the past year.

This is believed to be the first legal challenge in the United States brought by women who have been denied abortions since the Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade, who for nearly 50 years had upheld the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy.

In her six-page ruling, the magistrate found that some parts of the anti-abortion law violated the rights granted by the Texas Constitution to pregnant people.

The court found that the patients who filed the lawsuit suffered “urgent medical problems” during their pregnancy that endangered their health or life “and required abortion care.”

However, the termination of the pregnancy was delayed or denied due to the general uncertainty surrounding the impact of the law on doctors, the ruling noted.

“Today’s ruling should prevent other Texans from suffering the unbelievable trauma our plaintiffs endured,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, an activist legal body that promotes reproductive rights and helped file the claim. “It would be inconceivable for the state of Texas to appeal this ruling.”

During two days of emotional testimony in an Austin court, several women shared their heartbreaking stories of learning their babies would not survive birth and unable to travel long distances to states where abortion remains legal.

The challenge, filed in March, does not seek to reverse Texas’ ban on abortions, but rather to force more clarity around when exceptions are allowed under the law, which is one of the most restrictive in this regard. in United States.

Under Texas law, doctors who perform abortions risk life in prison and fines of up to $100,000. Opponents say that provision has forced some women to come under the care of doctors who are unwilling to even discuss the possibility of ending a pregnancy.

Most adults in the United States, including those who live in states with the strictest limits on abortion, want to make it legal at least during the early stages of pregnancy, according to a poll released in late June by AP and the NORC Center. Public Affairs Investigation.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project