Five Women Sue Texas Over Abortion Ban

[Hans Blaster]

The stated position of the court is indeed that physicians (not judges) decide the medical necessity. So ostensibly yes, any woman's doctor could conclude (presumably truthfully, ethically, and reasonably) the exception applied and perform the abortion. The court repeats several times that doctors don't need to get a court order to perform an abortion.

Bu still left unstated is what might happen in such a case if the AG puts the doctor on trial. The court calls on the medical community to come up with some guidelines, but part of the issue all along I believe is that the law is written with exception criteria that don't translate obviously in a 1-to-1 fashion to medical criteria. If the court is being sincere, then the decisions are left to the medical community to determine, not the legislature or the courts.

Between the AG threatening criminal prosecution and the threat of private legal action, the medical community is effectively cowed to vacate any medical exception outside (perhaps) acute lethal risk.

 

[essentialsaltes]

I Miscarried in Texas. My Doctors Put Abortion Law First​

[I wish to make it clear that this case is about a miscarriage.]

we had checked into the ER after I began to bleed at work. At nine weeks pregnant, I feared the worst

I was eventually called back for bloodwork and asked questions that were probably standard, but sounded increasingly cold and accusatory, about why I was there. I repeated for what seemed the tenth time that I thought I was having a miscarriage.

There was no heartbeat. There was nothing to save.

the attending doctor in the ER told me I was free to take Advil for pain (when you're pregnant you can't take ibuprofen) and that I should return only if I became feverish, filled a heavy pad with blood every hour or was nauseous.

Before we left, I asked him and the nurse if things had changed since the Dobbs decision. Without hesitation, they both said yes, clearly upset.

When my husband and I return for the second time to the ER, we explain what happened. The pain is too intense, too deep for me to think about anything else.

I'm given more fentanyl as the pain returns and more hours pass waiting. Around 5:30am, the doctor returns. As he opens his mouth to start talking, I stop him and tell him I need the bathroom because I feel something leaving me. That something was my placenta, which the doctor and nurse came in to collect for biopsy.

Before I'm discharged, I asked him to be frank with me—why wasn't I offered a D&C—a surgery that clears the uterine lining after a miscarriage and spares women the physical trauma of experiencing what I did over those two days—or misoprostol—a medication used to treat miscarriages, but also used for medicated abortions? Did the Dobbs decision affect how women were now treated in the ER?

Like the doctor the previous night, he sighed heavily: "Yes."

Lawyers, not women's lives, were now the overriding concern.

Our lives do not matter. That was demonstrated yet again last month when the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Kate Cox.

----

Jill Biden has invited Kate Cox to be her guest for the SOTU.

 

[essentialsaltes]

The court calls on the medical community to come up with some guidelines, but part of the issue all along I believe is that the law is written with exception criteria that don't translate obviously in a 1-to-1 fashion to medical criteria. If the court is being sincere, then the decisions are left to the medical community to determine, not the legislature or the courts.

Texas medical panel won't provide list of exceptions to abortion ban​

The board's proposed guidelines on exceptions to Texas' ban on abortion from the moment of fertilization, issued Friday, advise doctors to meticulously document their decision-making when determining if continuing a woman's pregnancy would threaten her life or impair a major bodily function, but otherwise provide few specifics.

[A list wasn't feasible, since not all situations are equivalent, so the decision is left in the hands of individual doctors. Probably the right decision, but obviously offering no particular protection to doctors under the law. The Board seems to imply the law should be rewritten, which is not in their power.]

 

[Nithavela]

Texas medical panel won't provide list of exceptions to abortion ban​

The board's proposed guidelines on exceptions to Texas' ban on abortion from the moment of fertilization, issued Friday, advise doctors to meticulously document their decision-making when determining if continuing a woman's pregnancy would threaten her life or impair a major bodily function, but otherwise provide few specifics.

[A list wasn't feasible, since not all situations are equivalent, so the decision is left in the hands of individual doctors. Probably the right decision, but obviously offering no particular protection to doctors under the law. The Board seems to imply the law should be rewritten, which is not in their power.]

And this is how you get women who wait in the hospital for a week until they are finally in mortal danger and can be treated.