A Texas judge on Friday issued a temporary injunction barring the state from enforcing its stringent abortion ban on women who suffer from dangerous pregnancy complications.
Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum ruled that uncertainty in the medical exceptions within the law makes it difficult for doctors to act on their “good faith judgement.”
Instead, “for fear of liability” under the law, they could be forced to “bar or delay the provision of abortion care to pregnant persons in Texas for whom an abortion would prevent or alleviate a risk of death or risk to their health.”
Under the pause, doctors that provide emergency abortions when certain physical medical conditions are present will not be subject to the ban.
“The Court finds that physical medical conditions include, at a minimum: a physical medical condition or complication of pregnancy that poses a risk of infection, or otherwise makes continuing a pregnancy unsafe for the pregnant person; a physical medical condition that is exacerbated by pregnancy, cannot be effectively treated during pregnancy, or requires recurrent invasive intervention; and/or a fetal condition where the fetus is unlikely to survive the pregnancy and sustain life after birth,” the injunction states.
The news comes after a group of five women sued the state government earlier this year over the ban after they were denied an abortion despite the difficulties in their pregnancies.
“What I needed was an abortion, a standard medical procedure,” Amanda Zurawski, one of the plaintiffs, said at the time. “An abortion would have prevented the unnecessary harm and suffering that I endured, not only the psychological trauma that came with three days of waiting, but the physical harm my body suffered, the extent of which is still being determined.”
“I needed an abortion to protect my life and to protect the lives of my future babies that I dream and hope I can still have someday,” she added.
Reproductive rights groups praised the decision, calling it “a win for Texans with pregnancy complications.”
“Today’s ruling should prevent other Texans from suffering the unthinkable trauma our plaintiffs endured,” Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “It would be unconscionable for the State of Texas to appeal this ruling.”
“The court has been clear: doctors must be able to provide patients the standard of care in pregnancy complications. That standard of care in certain cases is abortion because it is essential, life-saving healthcare,” she added. “This decision is a win for Texans with pregnancy complications, however Texas is still denying the right to abortion care for the vast majority of those who seek it.”
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) — following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2021, signed into law one of the most stringent abortion bans in the U.S, banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy.
