Amanda Zurawski told lawmakers Wednesday that she received an emergency abortion only after her condition worsened and she went into septic shock — adding that she may have been one of the fi…
Texas, which has arguably the most aggressive abortion restrictions in the country, has been the site of several legal battles over abortion since before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June.
The language in Texas’ abortion laws is “incredibly vague, and it leaves doctors grappling with what they can and cannot do, what health care they can and cannot provide,” Zurawski said, bristling at the implication that her doctors were at fault for misinterpreting the state’s abortion bans. “And if they make the wrong the decision, they face up to 99 years in prison and/or losing their license.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the committee, asked GOP witness Dr. Ingrid Skop, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Texas and vice president and director of medical affairs for the anti-abortion Charlotte Lozier Institute, to weigh in on what happened to Zurawksi.“And I am so sorry that your doctors misunderstood Texas law,” Skop said.
Skop said that even before the Supreme Court reversed Roe, doctors were aware of how to assess medical emergencies where abortions should be offered and that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has in place guidance instructing providers to offer abortions or delivery for patients in Zurawski’s situation, acknowledging that the risk of infection is high, which can become life-threatening sepsis.
“Quite frankly, my physician and my team of health care professionals that I saw over the course of three days, while I was repeatedly turned away from health care access, made the decision to not provide an abortion because that’s what they felt they had to do under Texas’ law,” Zurawski said. “And that will continue to happen and it is continuing to happen, and it’s not a result of misinterpretation. It’s the result of confusion and the confusion is because the way the law is written.
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