Judge temporarily exempts women with complicated pregnancies from Texas abortion ban

[August 05, 2023]  By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) -Women in Texas with complicated pregnancies will be exempted from a state abortion ban under a temporary injunction issued on Friday, with the judge citing a lack of clarity on the ban's medical exemptions.

Travis County District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum in her ruling sided with women and doctors who sued Texas over the abortion ban.

"The Court finds that there is uncertainty regarding whether the medical exception to Texas' abortion bans … permits a physician to provide abortion care where, in the physician's good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person, a pregnant person has a physical emergent medical condition," Mangrum said in the ruling.

The temporary injunction will stand until the lawsuit against Texas is complete, unless a higher court intervenes. The injunction is expected to be appealed.

The judge ruled that doctors cannot be prosecuted for application of "good faith judgment" for provision of abortions for physical medical conditions including: those that pose infection risk or make pregnancy unsafe, where the fetus is not likely to survive the pregnancy after birth, and where a medical condition cannot be effectively treated during pregnancy or requires "recurrent pervasive intervention."

"Today's ruling alleviates months of confusion around what conditions qualify as medical emergencies under Texas' abortion bans, giving doctors permission to use their own medical judgment in determining when abortion care is needed," the Center for Reproductive Rights, the group that brought this lawsuit, said in a statement.

A supporter of reproductive rights holds a sign outside the Texas State Capitol building during the nationwide Women's March, held after Texas rolled out a near-total ban on abortion procedures and access to abortion-inducing medications, in Austin, Texas, U.S. October 2, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Several women who said they were denied abortions despite grave risk to their lives sued the state of Texas in March, in the first apparent case of pregnant women suing over curbs imposed after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

The injunction is effective immediately. The judge set a trial date of March 25.

Abortion was banned with very limited exceptions in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court last year stripped away national abortion rights. State legislatures are wrestling with how much to restrict or expand abortion access after that decision.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler and William Mallard)

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