U.S. News Women sue Texas over abortion ban, say it risked their lives
professionals wary of facing liability if the state does not consider the situation a medical emergency.
In an email Tuesday, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he is “committed to doing everything in his power to protect mothers, families, and unborn children, and he will continue to defend and enforce the laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature.”
Doctors in the state now face felony criminal charges if they perform an abortion in all but limited cases in which the life of the patient is in danger.
John Seago, president of the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life, said the lawsuit dealt with very specific medical situations, two of which were cases that the existing law would have protected as a medical emergency. In those cases, he said he would consider the lack of intervention medical malpractice.
“These doctors should not have waited,” Seago said, adding that Texas law does not require doctors to wait until a patient is near death.
Seago said the other three cases, dealing with disabilities of the fetus or a recommendation from a doctor to abort one fetus to give a twin a better chance of survival, would have been prohibited from an abortion. He said there seems to be a disconnect with medical practitioners regarding what is permissible and providing clarification is important.
Doctors in Texas are afraid to speak publicly about the situation for fear of retaliation, Dr. Damla Karsan said in the lawsuit, and “widespread fear and confusion regarding the scope of Texas’s abortion bans has chilled the provision of necessary obstetric care, including abortion care.”
At the news conference, Anna Zargarian described how she flew from Texas to Colorado to get an abortion after her water broke prematurely. Doctors told her she could become dangerously ill and the fetus would likely not survive.
“An already extremely difficult situation had an extra layer of trauma because of medical decisions that were made by lawmakers and politicians and not by me or based on best medical practice,” Zargarian said.