For four years, maternal health experts, reproductive rights advocates, and patients who suffered under Texas’ abortion ban have pleaded for lawmakers to clarify medical emergency exceptions in the state’s abortion law, seen as the bare minimum they could do to mitigate the disaster inflicted by the harsh restrictions.
Vague exceptions coupled with severe penalties that include $100,000 in fines and up to 99 years in prison have led confused and fearful doctors to deny critical care to high-risk patients. Last fall, when ProPublica reported the tragic—and “preventable”—deaths of three pregnant Texans who faced delayed care for miscarriages, Republicans continued their unabashed defense of the state’s ban.
Pressure from constituents and public outcry may have finally tilted the scales for state Senator Bryan Hughes, a Mineola Republican, who authored Senate Bill 31 this legislative session, a measure that seeks to provide clarity about when doctors can perform life-saving care. Under the bipartisan bill, an “imminent” risk of death or a “substantial impairment of a major bodily function”—the previous standard—does not need to be present before a doctor can intervene. The bill also clarifies that a doctor or lawyer can discuss a medically necessary abortion with a patient without facing “aiding and abetting” charges.
