The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday debated the need for courts in the conservative southern US state to clarify “medical exceptions” to abortion bans, as demanded by women’s and doctors’ organizations, AFP reported.

Since the federal Supreme Court reinstated state abortion law in June 2022, overturning nearly half a century of case law, about two dozen have banned or severely restricted abortions.

Texas prohibits any voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), including incest or rape. The only exceptions are cases where there is a risk of death or serious disability for the mother.

Doctors face up to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and the loss of their medical license if they perform an abortion outside of these limits.

In a ruling handed down in August, the trial judge found that the plaintiffs, who now number about two dozen, had been “delayed or denied access to abortion because of widespread uncertainty about the discretion of doctors.”

It ruled that doctors cannot be held liable after they have made their “good faith judgment” and that they must be allowed to determine what constitutes a medical emergency that may threaten “life and/or health (including fertility) of a woman”.

“Doctors with horror” make a decision

“The trial court overstepped its constitutional prerogative by rewriting and expanding the terms of emergency medical care” under the law, Beth Klusmann, an appellate attorney for the Texas State Attorney’s Office, charged in the Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday.

The ruling, which was immediately stayed on appeal, “effectively eliminates that criterion, so there will never be a circumstance where a woman cannot have an abortion,” she told the justices, all Republicans.

“This need for clarification is because, by your own admission, some of these women should have been allowed to have abortions, but their doctor told them ‘no, I don’t understand,'” he said. the judge, Jeff Boyd, objected.

In such a case, the plaintiffs can speak against their doctor and sue him, the attorney general’s representative argued, apparently not convincing the majority in the Court.

“The problem is that doctors are afraid to invoke these exemptions” and risk prosecution by Texas authorities, said Molly Duane, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit.

“Although there is technically a medical exception to the ban, no one knows what that means. And the state refuses to inform us,” she complained.