Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • The full PUMP Act is now in effect. Here’s what it does for lactating parents.

        Chabeli Carrazana · April 28
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • This Delaware candidate could be the first transgender member of Congress

        Orion Rummler · June 26
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What are 'late-term abortions' — and why are politicians talking about them? 

        Mel Leonor Barclay, Shefali Luthra · August 21
      • The 19th Explains: Why child marriage is still legal in 80% of U.S. states

        Mariel Padilla · July 5
      • The 19th Explains: The Supreme Court’s decision in the LGBTQ+ 303 Creative case

        Kate Sosin · June 30
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      The State of Our Nation

      • States passing abortion bans reflect what only a small minority of their constituents actually want

        Jasmine Mithani · October 24
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Voting organizers are breathing ‘a deep sigh of relief’ over Supreme Court rulings on elections — for now

        Barbara Rodriguez · July 6
      • Ranked-choice voting is gaining momentum. So are efforts to stop it.

        Barbara Rodriguez · April 24
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Anna Zaragarian, Lauren Miller, Lauren Hall and Amanda Zurawski are among the plaintiffs who sued Texas over its abortion law. (Montinique Monroe for 19th News)

Abortion

Texas ruling would allow abortion during dangerous pregnancy complications

The temporary injunction also would allow the procedure for fatal fetal anomalies and protects doctors from prosecution in such cases. But the state appealed the decision, blocking it from taking effect.

 

Shefali Luthra

Health Reporter

Shefali Luthra portrait

Published

2023-08-04 19:30
7:30
August 4, 2023
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Your trusted source for contextualizing abortion news. Sign up for our daily newsletter.

A Texas judge ruled Friday that the the state cannot deny people access to abortion when facing dangerous pregnancy complications, including fatal fetal anomalies. But hours later, the state attorney general’s office appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court, blocking the temporary injunction from taking effect until that court has ruled.  

The injunction would allow doctors to exercise their own medical judgment about when patients need abortions to protect their lives or health. Though the state’s three different abortion bans nominally allow abortions when a patient’s life is in danger, doctors and other medical providers had previously said the language was not clear enough for them to act until the pregnant person’s condition had worsened to the point they could soon die. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Separately, the ruling also found that Texas’ six-week abortion ban, known as Senate Bill 8 and enforced through private citizen lawsuits, violates the state constitution. 

The state judge set a trial on the merits of the Texas abortion laws, scheduling that hearing for March 2024.

If enforced, the Texas injunction could have massive implications for people in the state who need abortions for wanted pregnancies that have become untenable. Texas is the largest state in the country to have banned almost all abortions. Still, the ruling would not affect the majority of people who seek abortions, who usually seek termination earlier on after discovering an unplanned pregnancy, and not because of physical complications.

  • More from The 19th
    Chairwoman Kay Granger (center) talks with Rep. Steve Womack on Capitol Hill.
  • House Republicans are baking abortion restrictions into spending bills — and avoiding public votes
  • Texas denied abortions to these women when their lives were in danger. Now they’re suing the state.
  • For years, Republican states wouldn’t pass diaper laws. The end of abortion protections changed that.

The case at hand, Zurawski v. Texas, is believed to be the first case since 1973 in which women have sued the state over being denied an abortion. The plaintiffs include more than a dozen women who were unable to get abortions in their state. All experienced complications with wanted pregnancies. Some traveled out of state for abortions. Amanda Zurawski, the lead plaintiff, was forced to wait until she developed sepsis to get an abortion in Texas. One woman, Samantha Casiano, was forced to have a child who doctors said had no chance of living — and who died within hours of being born. 

Casiano, one of the women who testified in Austin last month, vomited on the stand describing her experience. Zurawski’s infection closed one of her fallopian tubes, meaning she will face greater challenges in conceiving again and is now relying on in vitro fertilization to become pregnant. Multiple plaintiffs have also reported feeling afraid for their lives if they become pregnant again in the state of Texas.

The state of Texas has attempted to argue that any confusion over abortion exceptions is not the fault of the law itself, but instead the result of doctors being unwilling to make complex medical decisions. Lawyers for the state also argued that some of the women lacked standing to challenge the law in court, because they were not currently pregnant and seeking an abortion. 

Doctors across the country have reported uncertainty over whether they can provide abortion care even when necessary because of medical complications, including when cancer patients require chemotherapy — which must be paused while pregnant – or when their water breaks early in pregnancy. In such cases, the standard medical care would be abortion, but it is not always clear if those situations qualify under states’ various medical exceptions clauses.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th News(letter)

News that represents you, in your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Please complete the following CAPTCHA to be confirmed. If you have any difficulty, contact [email protected] for help.

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please email [email protected] to subscribe.

Become a member

Up Next

A pharmacists takes an Ozempic package out of a pharmacy fridge.

Health

Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic are more likely to interest women than men, poll finds

A majority of women expressed interest in taking drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy — likely in part the product of greater pressure on women’s bodies.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Ways to Give
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram