In August 2022, Amanda and Josh Zurawski were 18 weeks into a much-wanted pregnancy with their first child when her water broke early. The complication ended her chances of delivering a healthy baby and imperiled her health – but doctors in Austin, where the couple live, said they could not end her pregnancy under Texas law, because they could still detect fetal cardiac activity.
In the wake of the supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, which reversed half a century of precedent and overturned Roe v Wade, the Texas legislature, like those in 13 other states, passed a near-total abortion ban. Though the ban allowed for medical exceptions, doctors have said that the law – written by politicians, not medical professionals – is so vaguely worded, and the criminal penalties so severe (up to 99 years in prison for violating state abortion law), that it was unworkable in practice, blocking doctors from helping patients.
