By Marin Wolf
Texas’ top court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that challenges the state’s exemptions for abortion for Texans with medically complicated pregnancies, which critics say are so vague that hospitals and doctors are unwilling to allow the procedure in almost all circumstances.
The lawsuit — Zurawski vs. State of Texas — now includes 20 women who say their abortions were denied or delayed because of unclear wording in the state bans, which currently allow for an exemption only when a pregnant person’s life is at risk. Two Texas doctors are also part of the lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March.
Plaintiffs in the case had a brief victory in August when Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum granted their request for a temporary injunction that exempted pregnant women with risky pregnancies, including fatal fetal diagnoses, from the state’s abortion bans. Two weeks prior to the ruling, four women in the case testified about their own experiences in seeking abortions because of medical emergencies.
The Texas attorney general’s office immediately appealed the ruling straight to the state Supreme Court, placing a stay on the injunction that was active for only a few hours. First Assistant Attorney General Brent Webster said the state’s appeal was a response to “an activist Austin judge’s attempt to override Texas abortion laws.”
The Texas Supreme Court will decide whether to uphold the injunction or overturn the Travis County court’s decision. Here’s what led to this point, and what potential decisions could mean for pregnant Texans.
A unique lawsuit
Texas joined a number of other states in banning abortions in nearly all cases after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections in June 2022. The trigger ban makes it a felony to perform an abortion unless the mother has a “life-threatening physical condition” or is at risk of “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
But Texas had been operating under enforceable abortion restrictions for nearly a year before that decision. Senate Bill 8, known as the Heartbeat Act, allowed individuals to be sued for performing or aiding abortions in Texas after six weeks gestation beginning in September 2021.
Doctors who perform an abortion in a case that doesn’t meet medical exemption criteria can face up to a $100,000 fine and life in prison.
Abortions in Texas have fallen dramatically since before either of the bans went into place, dropping from more than 50,000 in 2021 to 26 in the first six months of 2023, according to Texas Health and Human Services Commission data.
The lawsuit going before the Texas Supreme Court is unique in that it doesn’t challenge the legality of the entire abortion ban. Instead, it questions only the vague definition of “life-threatening” medical problems.
During the July hearing in Travis County, the state argued that the language regarding medical exemptions is clear and that any negative experiences are the fault of the patients’ doctors.
Should the Supreme Court uphold the injunction, any Texan with a complicated pregnancy, including those with fatal fetal diagnoses, would be excluded from the abortion bans. In her ruling, Mangrum decided doctors cannot be prosecuted for using their own “good faith judgment” to provide abortions to patients with physical medical conditions.
The women at the heart of the case
Plaintiffs shared stories of delayed or denied abortions in court filings and on the stand during the July hearing.
Amanda Zurawski, lead plaintiff in the case, said she had to wait until she went septic to receive an abortion after her water broke prematurely. Dr. Austin Dennard, an obstetrician who cared for another plaintiff in the case, said she had to travel out of state for an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with a nonviable birth defect.
The high-profile lawsuit has grown substantially after being first filed by five patients in March. Seven women recently joined the case, including Kristen Anaya, 41, whose water broke at 16-and-a-half weeks, making the pregnancy nonviable. The North Texas woman spiked a fever and eventually developed an infection while at the hospital, where medical providers wouldn’t perform an abortion because the fetus still had a heartbeat.
Plaintiffs won’t testify during oral arguments in front of the Texas Supreme Court, but many will be at the courthouse to watch the proceedings, said Barrett White, U.S. press officer for the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The hearing will be livestreamed and is set to start around 10 a.m. C.T.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
