Texas appeals order on allowing some women to get abortions

AUSTIN, Texas – When Lauren Miller found out she was pregnant last year, she was so happy.

“My husband and I have a now-2-year-old son, and we knew we wanted more kids,” Miller said. “So we were very excited last summer when we found out that I was pregnant.”

But a few weeks into her pregnancy, she was hospitalized for extreme morning sickness. She learned she was pregnant with twins, and one of them had severe abnormalities.

“We just kept seeing more and more issues,” Miller said. “It was devastating because they couldn't tell us really anything besides, ‘Every day that he continues to grow, he puts his twin and yourself at greater risk.’”

Miller says doctors wouldn’t perform a procedure to abort one of the twins, whom she named Thomas, which would have protected her and the other baby.

Under state law, abortions are legal if the patient’s life is at risk, but some doctors say that's not clearly defined. And doctors who perform abortions could face life in prison and fines of up to $100,000.

“We should be able to do what we need with our doctors and make the decisions that are right for us," said Miller.

She says if she had carried both boys to term, she could have risked infection or premature labor. Miller traveled to Colorado for a legal abortion. She’s thankful she had the money and resources to do so.

“That severe morning sickness that had put me in the hospital twice dissipated, I mean, within 24 hours of the abortion procedure, just because of the drop in hormones," she said. "I was so quickly better, and I ended up going through with the rest of the pregnancy and had a happy, healthy baby in March.”

Her son is named Henry.

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This experience is why she joined a group of women suing the state over its abortion law. A judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, saying women who have a medically complicated pregnancy are exempt from the abortion ban, and doctors who perform them won’t be prosecuted.

The state appealed the judge’s ruling, so the near-total abortion ban is still in effect until the case is heard by the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Attorney General’s office says protecting the health of mothers and babies is already “enshrined in the law” because an abortion can be performed if a woman’s life is at risk.

Rebecca Weaver with the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life believes the judge is trying to legislate from the bench.

“The Legislature just met for six months, right? And they made some tweaks and clarifications to this law, but they didn't act to expand it. They didn't act to repeal it,” Weaver said. “So now for the court to come in and just completely rewrite the law in this injunction, even though it's been temporarily stayed, for them to completely rewrite the exception and make it so broad is not what Texas voters, you know, that's not the kinds of representatives they elected. That's not the decision they've made. And so for the court to do this is a serious overstep.”

Doctors have said the law is not clear, but some conservatives disagree.

“Our laws don't require that a woman be on death’s door before action can be taken to save her life,” Weaver said. “And that's what we've heard in a lot of these cases is that's what was happening. And our law doesn't require that. And so that is just confusion and misinformation, not actually a problem in the law.”

The law says the abortion ban does not apply if a licensed official uses “reasonable medical judgment” to perform an abortion on a woman whose pregnancy “places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”

The judge’s ruling says a woman would also be allowed abortion care if her baby had a fatal fetal anomaly. Although Weaver says the plaintiffs' stories are "so heartbreaking and tragic," she's not OK with this.

"That's something that we've been working in the Legislature for a long time to make sure babies with disabilities are protected in the womb," she said. "And so this decision is really broadening [the law] and allowing abortion on a whole class of babies that we have fought to protect. And that's one of the most dangerous parts of this case in this injunction and why we were disheartened about that decision.”

But Miller says being forced to carry a baby to term that’s not going to live long is “monstrous.”

“It is barbaric. It is cruel,” Miller said. “What they are doing is saying that these babies need to fully develop their pain system, and then be born to a life of pain. That is horrible.”

Miller is hopeful that the Texas Supreme Court will rule in favor of the plaintiffs.

"My hope is that the more our stories are heard, the more that people realize how these bans play out in real life," Miller said.

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