Five women sued the state of Texas on Monday for its abortion ban because they were denied the procedure despite grave health risks brought about by their pregnancies.
The situation marks the first time pregnant women have moved forward with legal action against the wave of bans that have shut down abortion access across the United States. It follows the Supreme Court's decision to overrule Roe v. Wade.
Texas Facing Lawsuit Over Abortion Ban
The women who filed the lawsuit, who were visibly pregnant, are set to lay out their stories on the steps of the Texas Capitol on Tuesday. The harrowing experiences that they have gone through will detail what their 91-page complaint called "catastrophic harms" to women everywhere since the court's ruling in June last year.
The accounts of the five women could potentially resonate with public opinion, which generally favors legalizing abortion, and overwhelmingly supports the procedure for pregnant women facing dangers to their lives, as per the New York Times.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is supporting the five women's lawsuit, which comes as the United States struggles with the fallout from the overruling of Roe that has resulted in the banning of abortion in at least 13 states nationwide.
Like most states that have banned abortion, Texas allows exceptions when a physician determines a risk of "substantial" harm to a pregnant woman. However, the potential for imprisonment goes up to 99 years with $100,000 fines and loss of medical licenses. It has scared medical professionals into not providing abortions even when cases under the exceptions would allow them.
The lawsuit asks the state's court to affirm that physicians can make exceptions and clarify under what conditions. However, the greater power of the suit could be in appealing to public opinion on support for abortion.
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Consequences of Denying Abortion Access
The women argued that the situation with the abortion ban had created a hush-hush code within the medical field that prevented them from gaining access to urgent care. During a news conference on Tuesday, lead attorney Molly Duane said that all five women qualified for an abortion under Texas law's exception, according to the Washington Post.
Duane said they were inviting the court to help them craft a remedy for the situation to ensure that the harm seen every day in the state and the United States does not continue. In a statement, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights president and CEO, Nancy Northup, said that the lawsuit was the first of its kind and would not be the last.
On Tuesday, Northup told reporters that being a pregnant woman in Texas was not very dangerous. She argued that no one should be forced to wait at death's door so that they could receive proper health care.
The White House also slammed the Texas government following the lawsuit, arguing that the situation has shown the "reality of Governor Abbott's abortion ban." Vice President Kamala Harris argued that taking away women's right to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions endangers every woman's health, said the Houston Chronicle.
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