Doctors will get legal cover for some emergency abortions under new Texas law
, which advocates for pro-business legal reforms, said it drafted the legislation and “shepherded it through the process without raising a fuss.” To get the bill through the Senate, Johnson said she worked with Republican state Sen. Bryan Hughes, who authored the state’s original six-week abortion ban, allowing private citizens to sue doctors for performing abortions after an embryo shows signs of cardiac activity.
Hughes said lawmakers worked with the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Hospital Association to craft the language. He contended that state law already allows for so-called"medically necessary" abortions, despite different interpretations among medical professionals. He and his Republican colleagues wanted to “remove any excuse for a doctor or hospital refusing to give care that moms need in these emergencies.
"We hear from folks back home, and we respond," Hughes said. He declined to say whether he would consider adding protections for other conditions in the future. Ectopic pregnancies occur in fewer than 2 percent of all pregnancies, while PPROM occurs in roughly 5 to 7 percent.Not all abortion rights advocates were satisfied by the legislation. Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents 15 plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking clarity to the state’s abortion laws, said the bill is “wholly insufficient to address the widespread suffering happening across Texas, as evidenced by the women in our lawsuit.
While some plaintiffs in the lawsuit did experience PPROM, others dealt with different pregnancy complications including fatal fetal anomalies that they say forced them to leave the state for care.“Under this bill, doctors who provide an abortion will still have to defend themselves in court to prove the abortion was necessary,” she said in the statement. “Imagine doing that in a state whose government has been zealously hostile towards abortion providers.
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