Texas judge grants injunction on abortion law, AG appeals | CNHI

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By: Ali Linan

Texas Alliance for Life, a pro-life organization, said the injunction “opens the door to confusion about the clearly-worded exception language to allow abortions when a pregnancy endangers a mother’s life.”

“While Texas law is clear, we believe that some doctors are not apprised of the actual language of the law, resulting in poor care for their patients,” Texas Alliance for Life Communications Director Amy O’Donnell said. “Professional organizations like the Texas Medical Association, ACOG, and the Texas Medical Board, are the proper sources of guidance and rules for physicians, not the courts.”

Lawsuit over Texas abortion ban could be a model in other states | Stateline

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By: David Montgomery

Joe Pojman, founder and executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, one of the state’s leading anti-abortion rights groups, also defended the medical exception. “The law is already clear,” he said. “Judges are supposed to interpret the law, not rewrite the law.”

The suit names the state of Texas, the Texas Medical Board and Board Executive Director Stephen Brint Carlton as defendants. Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, is also a defendant, though he is currently suspended pending a state Senate trial on impeachment charges alleging bribery and other wrongdoing.

Lawyers for the attorney general’s office, who could not be reached for comment, are asking the court to dismiss the suit. In a rebuttal petition, they accuse the plaintiffs of staging “splashy news conferences and media tours” to get a favorable court ruling “after failing to convince the Legislature to adopt their preferred version of the medical exception.”

A proposed court order by the plaintiffs asks the court to give physicians discretion to use “good faith judgment” in providing abortion care to someone withunsafe pregnancy complications or instances in which a fetus is unlikely to survive the pregnancy or live after birth.

THE LEGISLATURE IGNORES SUFFERING PREGNANT TEXANS | TEXAS OBSERVER

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By: SARA HUTCHINSON

“I am pleased to say that none of the bills that want to weaken our pro-life laws have been sent in any committee to be heard,” spokesperson Amy O’Donnell said, “And we are going to keep it that way.”

O’Donnell said that if doctors need clarification, that clarification should come not from the Legislature, but from other bodies such as the Texas Medical Board.

Yet evidence is mounting that Texas anti-abortion laws prevent doctors from providing standard-of-care treatment. Bernardo and her 12 co-plaintiffs were all denied care for their pregnancy complications as a result of Texas law.

State Senator Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, who filed the Senate version of the bill, said that she’s disappointed the Legislature failed to act.

“When the Lege passed the trigger ban, a lot of us warned that the exception was too vague and undefined and that could have a chilling effect on doctors’ ability to treat their patients, leading to delay or even a denial of care,” she said, “and what we predicted came true.”

Michelle Goldberg: Texas is torturing women whose pregnancies fail | TwinCities.com

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By: MICHELLE GOLDBERG

One of the new plaintiffs in the suit, a mother of four named Samantha Casiano, was forced to carry to term a fetus that she knew would not survive after birth, spending months fundraising for the inevitable funeral. Reporting on Casiano’s case in April, NPR spoke to Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life. O’Donnell was at least honest. She doesn’t believe in exemptions for cases like Casiano’s. “I do believe the Texas laws are working as designed,” she said.

You Cannot Hear These 13 Women’s Stories and Believe the Anti-Abortion Narrative | The New York Times

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By: Michelle Goldberg

One of the new plaintiffs in the suit, a mother of four named Samantha Casiano, was forced to carry to term a fetus that she knew would not survive after birth, spending months fund-raising for the inevitable funeral. Reporting on Casiano’s case in April, NPR spoke to Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life. O’Donnell was at least honest. She doesn’t believe in exemptions for cases like Casiano’s. “I do believe the Texas laws are working as designed,” she said.