Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge to state abortion ban
The Texas Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to the state’s abortion law by a group of women and a doctor who claim the provision allowing for legal abortions is not clear enough.
In a unanimous decision released Friday, the state Supreme Court ruled in Texas v. Zurawski et al that the exceptions, as currently written in Texas state law, are broad enough to allow for an abortion if the mother is facing a medical emergency.
The women, who had allegedly experienced severe complications in their pregnancies, argued that the state law, as written, had contributed to their problems by denying them "life-saving" abortions.
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Texas bans all abortion procedures except for those performed in the event of a life-threatening medical emergency for the pregnant woman.
Justice Jane Bland authored the court opinion, writing that “Texas law permits a life-saving abortion” and that “the law does not require that a woman’s death be imminent or that she first suffer physical impairment.”
“The law does not require the life-threatening physical condition to have already caused damage before a physician can act to preserve the mother’s life or major bodily function,” wrote Bland.
“Guidance about a law’s application outside of a redressable injury is a proper undertaking for the other two branches of government. The Legislature anticipates and shapes the future.”
Justice Debra Lehrmann authored a concurring opinion, writing that she hoped the ruling “will provide physicians with much-needed guidance about what the law requires.”
“As the Oklahoma and North Dakota Supreme Courts have already concluded based on analogous state constitutional provisions, a general abortion ban cannot survive constitutional scrutiny unless it excepts ‘the limited instances of life-saving and health-preserving circumstances,’” wrote Lehrmann.
“A woman’s right to access life-saving medical care without undue interference by the government is deeply rooted in our history and tradition, essential to our Nation’s scheme of ordered liberty, and enshrined in the explicit language of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the ruling, taking to his X account to vow that “I will continue to defend the laws enacted by the Legislature and uphold the values of the people of Texas by doing everything in my power to protect mothers and babies.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a pro-choice group that helped to represent the plaintiffs, denounced the Texas Supreme Court decision, arguing that it failed to provide proper clarity on exemptions.
“This ruling utterly fails to provide the clarity Texas doctors need for when they can provide abortion care to patients with serious pregnancy complication without risking being sent to prison,” said CRR President Nancy Northup in a statement.
“Pregnancy complications should be managed by doctors, not courts and politicians. We are enormously proud of the women in this case who stood up to Texas’ unjust law. We will continue to pursue every available legal avenue to address the suffering happening in Texas and are currently assessing what, if anything, remains of our clients’ claims in this case.”
The lawsuit was initially filed in March of last year, with lead plaintiff Amanda Zurawski claiming that, while she had a condition that meant her baby would not survive, she had to wait until she was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of sepsis before she could have an abortion.
“I am outraged on behalf of my fellow plaintiffs who the Court deemed not sick enough,” said Zurawski in a statement after the ruling, as reported by The Associated Press. “We all deserve bodily autonomy. Every day, people in Texas are being told that they have no options. It’s sickening and wrong.”
