To challenge the Texas abortion ban, the Center for Reproductive Rights, representing five women and two doctors, filed a lawsuit on Monday. The next day, Nancy Northup and the four women attended a press conference outside the Texas Capitol building. The five women are Ashley Brandt, Lauren Hall, Lauren Miller, Anna Zargarian and Amanda Zurawski.
According to Nancy Northup, chief executive officer and president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, pregnancy is dangerous in Texas. The five women brought a case after they were denied abortions despite having medical issues that qualified them under the state’s tight abortion rules. As a result, their health was at risk because the procedure was rejected.
Molly Duane, the lead attorney on the case, said that the objective of the action is for the state to acknowledge that some pregnant women should have received abortion care. Pregnant women who have issues with their pregnancies will be permitted to receive medical treatment in their local communities.
The five women were simply the “tip of the iceberg,” according to Northup. She claimed that the state’s ban on abortion runs counter to the idea of promoting life. Two plaintiffs, Amanda Zurawski and Lauren Hall, discussed how Texas doctors rejected them.
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Abortion in Texas in Punishable by Law
The Texas Heartbeat Act, passed in September 2021, forbids abortions if embryonic heart activity has been identified. Anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion can be sued by private individuals.
The statute has no exemptions for rape, incest, or if the fetus has a deadly or incurable illness. The only exception is “medical emergencies,” yet there is no definition of a medical emergency.
After Roe v. Wade was overruled, Texas enacted trigger legislation that makes intentionally performing, inducing, or attempting to induce an abortion a second-degree felony
.According to the Texas Penal Code, a first-degree crime carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.
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