Texas Supreme Court upholds state abortion law and dismisses lawsuit demanding details on exceptions
Twenty women sued the state asking it to spell out the medical exceptions that allow women to terminate a pregnancy, arguing that the current law leads doctors to incorrectly refuse interventions.
Ken Paxton, fiscal general de Texas. (Cordon Press)
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit challenging its abortion law in a unanimous ruling. All nine justices upheld the law that, according to the lawsuit, does not sufficiently clarify when medical exceptions are allowed.
In March of last year, five women who claimed to have gone through risky pregnancies that affected their health, and were denied an abortion, went to court to ask for clarification regarding which medical emergencies allow a pregnancy to be terminated. Two physicians also filed as plaintiffs, and they were joined by 15 other women.
Months later, a Travis County judge ruled, through an injunction, that an abortion could be performed if a doctor found in "good faith" that it was necessary, but the state attorney general, Ken Paxton, appealed it.
With this, the highest state court said that the exceptions, as written, are broad enough and that doctors would be misinterpreting the law if they refused to perform an abortion when the mother's life is in danger: "Texas law permits a life-saving abortion," stated the judges this Friday, in statements reported by AP.
The Texas legislation, they argued, is sufficiently clear. There is no constitutional justification to specify further.
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