More women sue Texas to block abortion law

WASHINGTON — One woman had to carry her unborn child, missing much of her skull, for months knowing she’d bury her daughter soon after she was born. Another started mirroring the life-threatening symptoms that her fetus was displaying while in the womb. An OBGYN found herself secretly traveling out of state to abort her wanted pregnancy, marred by the diagnosis of a fatal fetal anomaly.

All of the women were told they could not end their pregnancies in Texas, a state that has enacted some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.

Now, they’re asking a Texas court to put an emergency hold on some abortion restrictions, joining a lawsuit filed earlier this year by five other women who were denied abortions in the state, despite pregnancies they say endangered their health or lives.

More than a dozen Texas women in total have joined the Center for Reproductive Rights’ lawsuit against the state’s law, which prohibits abortions unless a woman’s life is at risk — an exception that is not clearly defined. Texas doctors who perform abortions risk life in prison and fines up to $100,000, leaving many women with providers who are unwilling to even discuss terminating a pregnancy.

“Our hope is that it will allow physicians at least a little more comfort when it comes to patients in obstetrical emergencies who really need an abortion where it’s going to affect their health, fertility or life going forward,” Molly Duane, the lead attorney on the case, told the Associated Press. “Almost all of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit tell similar stories about their doctors saying, ‘If not for this law, I’d give you an abortion right now.’ ”

The Texas attorney general’s office, which is defending the state in the lawsuit, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

The lawsuit serves as a nationwide model for abortion rights advocates to challenge strict new laws that states have rolled out since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade last year. Sixteen states, including Texas, do not allow abortions when a fatal fetal anomaly is detected, and six do not allow exceptions for the woman’s health, according to an analysis by KFF, a health research organization.

Duane said the Center for Reproductive Rights is looking at filing similar lawsuits in other states, noting that they’ve heard from women across the country.

Women in the lawsuit say they could not openly discuss abortion or labor induction with their doctors, instead asking their doctors discreetly if they should travel outside of the state.

Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Dallas, never talked about her own abortion with her doctors after they discovered anencephaly on the fetus’ ultrasound during her pregnancy last year. She worried her out-ofstate trip to end the pregnancy could jeopardize her medical license or invite harassment. Dennard was inspired to go public with her case when one of her own patients joined the original lawsuit filed in March after traveling to Colorado to abort a twin fetus diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disorder.

“There was an enormous amount of fear that I experienced afterward,” Dennard said. “It’s an additional way of feeling silenced. You feel you have to do it in secret and not tell anyone about it.”