What are my rights under Texas law?
A physician who tells a patient, “Your life is threatened by a complication that has arisen during your pregnancy, and you may die, or there is a serious risk you will suffer substantial physical impairment unless an abortion is performed,” and in the same breath states “but the law won’t allow me to provide an abortion in these circumstances” is simply wrong in that legal assessment.
State v. Zurawski, 690 S.W.3d 644, 653 (Tex. 2024).
Texas law “permits an abortion when reasonable medical judgment would find one indicated to avert death or substantial bodily impairment of a pregnant woman diagnosed with a life-threatening physical condition arising from or aggravated by her pregnancy.”
State v. Zurawski, 690 S.W.3d 644, 653 (Tex. 2024).
Texas law generally prohibits abortions unless the life and health of the mother is at risk. Some specific exceptions to the abortion law apply and, since the law makes all elective abortions illegal, patients seeking an abortion outside of the one of the exceptions must leave the state to receive the healthcare they need.
Texas has prohibited, for example, termination of a pregnancy for a fatal fetal anomaly – meaning the baby would not live to or beyond birth. In one tragic case, Kate Cox and her husband sued the state of Texas. But the Texas attorney general sent a letter to doctors and hospitals warning they could still be prosecuted if they helped Kate get an abortion – and filed an appeal with the State Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court then ruled against Kate. Texas mother Kate Cox on the outcome of her legal fight for an abortion: “It was crushing” – CBS News
You do not have to be actively dying before your doctor can intervene. The Texas Supreme Court has provided that a life-threatening physical condition permitting an abortion “is not necessarily one actively injuring the patient; it is a condition that has the potential to kill the patient … 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.”
If you or a loved one were denied care resulting in harm, contact Michelle.