The recent total abortion bans in some states have made it increasingly dangerous for pregnant women. Many women in prohibition states are being denied care for miscarriages or forced to continue nonviable pregnancies. The anti-abortion movement has responded in a variety of ways, including blaming the pro-choice movement for spreading lies. However, a new filing in a Texas lawsuit brings these arguments into question. The suit was filed by five women who were refused an abortion for pregnancies that had gone terribly wrong. The Center for Reproductive Rights says they have heard from dozens of similar cases in Texas. Eight more women have since joined the suit, which seeks to clarify the extent of emergency medical exceptions to Texas’ abortion ban.
In most of these cases, the doctors were struggling to do the right thing, but the law was causing the problem, not their misunderstanding of it. The suit includes women who encountered religiously-affiliated hospitals refusing to let them get abortions or doctors who were afraid to even say the word “abortion”. Two of the women in the suit were pregnant with twins and discovered that one of the twins had severe abnormalities and wouldn’t survive. To protect the life of the viable twin and their own health, they needed to abort the doomed twin.
The fear of what could happen has created pervasive fear among medical communities, with many doctors struggling to do what’s right for their patients. The anti-abortion movement could help alleviate this fear by joining the suit or filing one of their own, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, some activists, like Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life, support the law as designed, regardless of how it impacts women. It is crucial to understand the devastating effects of total abortion bans on women’s health and lives.
