Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum issued a temporary injunction on Friday that broadens exceptions to an abortion law in Texas for those whose lives are endangered by pregnancy or in situations where a fetus is not likely to survive.
“The Court finds that there is uncertainty regarding whether the medical exception to Texas’s abortion bans permits a physician to provide abortion care where, in the physician’s good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person, a pregnant person has a physical emergent medical condition,” the justice, who was elected to the court as a Democrat in 2020, wrote.
“The Court further finds that any official’s enforcement of Texas’s abortion bans as applied to a pregnant person with an emergent medical condition for whom an abortion would prevent or alleviate a risk of death or risk to their health (including their fertility) would be inconsistent with the rights afforded to pregnant people under…the Texas Constitution,” her order reads.
The complaint was brought by over a dozen women and filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March which argued that current state laws caused “catastrophic harms.”
“After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect. Texans have suffered catastrophic harms because of those bans. Pregnant people in Texas and throughout the country have suffered unnecessary physical and emotional pain and harm, including loss of their fertility. These pregnant people are not hypothetical. They are not unknown. They are real people with families, many with children already, and some of them are plaintiffs in this action,” the original filing argues.
The ruling was applauded by Nancy Northup, the chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Today’s ruling should prevent other Texans from suffering the unthinkable trauma our plaintiffs endured,” the CEO said. “It would be unconscionable for the State of Texas to appeal this ruling.”
“For the first time in a long time, I cried for joy when I heard the news,” one plaintiff, Amanda Zurawski, said in a statement. “This is exactly why we did this. This is why we put ourselves through the pain and the trauma over and over again to share our experiences and the harms caused by these awful laws.”
Texas bars abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy.