Are Texas' abortion laws clear enough? State Supreme Court hears opening arguments tied to lawsuit

Texas' Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case looking to determine whether medical exceptions to Texas abortion bans are written clearly enough to protect women who face serious health risks during pregnancy.

The 22 plaintiffs in the case include several women forced to wait until they were sick with sepsis, a life-threatening condition, to terminate pregnancies that premature ruptures of membrane had already rendered nonviable; two women who traversed hundreds of miles for abortions of a nonviable twin to protect their and their healthy babies' lives; and a woman forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term, then watch her baby's skin turn purple and her eyeballs bleed as she slowly suffocated to death.

On their behalf, Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Molly Duane argued that the vague language and “non-medical terminology” of the exceptions leave doctors unable or unwilling to administer abortion care, forcing patients to seek treatment out of state or wait until after their lives are in danger.

But the state, represented by Texas Assistant Solicitor General Beth Klusmann, argued the law is clear and that it was doctors, not legislators, who were responsible for women being denied abortions in medical emergencies that fall under the state's abortion ban exceptions.

📹: Supreme Court of Texas