A Texas court on Friday (August 4) issued a temporary order in favor of a group of women and doctors who are challenging the state’s abortion bans on the grounds of medical emergency. .
The Center for Reproductive Rights filing argues that the way medical exceptions are defined in Texas law is causing a “health crisis” because they confuse doctors.
In her written judgment, Judge Jessica Mangrum acknowledges that women have been “delayed or deprived of access to abortion due to widespread uncertainty about physicians’ leeway under the medical exception to abortion.” ‘Texas Abortion Ban’. She ordered that the doctors not be prosecuted after exercising their “good faith judgment”.
Physicians should be allowed to determine what they deem to be medical emergencies that could endanger “a woman’s life and/or health (including fertility),” she said.
Injunction blocked when Texas appeals
The temporary injunction is meant to last until the legal action is judged on the merits in a trial due to begin next March. However, under Texas law, a decision is automatically stayed as soon as it is appealed, which means that Friday’s injunction will likely be blocked as soon as the state appeals.
Last month, the Austin court heard harrowing testimony from plaintiffs. Amanda Zurawski, who gave her name to the case, was unable to have an abortion very early in her desired pregnancy, when the miscarriage was inevitable. According to Ms. Zurawski, her doctor told her she “couldn’t intervene because the baby’s heart was still beating and inducing labor would be considered an illegal abortion.” Ms. Zurawski, victim of sepsis, forcing the practice of an abortion three days later, almost lost her life.
The lawsuit is the first filed on behalf of women who have been denied abortions since the US Supreme Court gave states the freedom to legislate abortion on their own. Texas has banned all voluntary terminations of pregnancy (abortion), at any stage, including incest or rape. Only exception: in case of danger of death or risk of serious disability for the mother.
Up to 99 years in prison
Texas doctors convicted of performing abortions face up to 99 years in prison, fines of up to $100,000 and the revocation of their medical licenses.
This action asks the court to provide a binding interpretation of the exception of “medical emergency” provided for in the law, arguing that it is up to doctors to assess, “in good faith”, the need for an abortion, rather than state legislators.
For the Texas attorney general’s office, these measures would effectively nullify its prohibitions. The proposed medical exception would “by design destroy the rule,” its lawyers argue in their written response, “it would, for example, allow abortions for pregnant women with medical conditions ranging from a headache to a feeling of depression.”