Texas Dems Would Like State's Abortion Bans To Be Slightly Less Deadly, Please

If they must exist at all, which they should not.

Democratic lawmakers in the Texas state House and Senate introduced bills last week creating new exceptions to the state’s terrible and cruel abortion ban, in hopes of making it less likely to kill people. Isn’t that nice?

Sure, it would obviously be nicer if the abortion bans didn’t exist in the first place, but “not killing people” is certainly a step in the right direction.

Currently, the only exceptions are for ectopic pregnancies, if the patient’s water breaks, or if they have “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”

The new bills, introduced in the House by state Rep. Donna Howard and in the Senate by state Sen. Carol Alvarado, were written partly in response to reporting by ProPublica about the recent deaths of Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain, two now-deceased pregnant women in Texas who would have likely survived had their doctors been able to provide care to them earlier instead of having to wait until they were at death’s door before intervening.

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The consequences for performing an abortion in a situation a judge deems not enough of an emergency are steep. Not only do doctors risk losing their license, they risk fines of up to $100,000 and up to 99 years in prison. Over 100 Texas ob-gyns signed a letter sent to the Texas legislature explaining that these exceptions are far too vague and cause doctors to wait far too long to intervene, often at the cost of patients’ health and occasionally their lives.

These bills would allow doctors a bit more leeway, allowing them to induce labor or perform an abortion in order to preserve the patient’s mental or physical health (including to preserve their fertility), or in the cases of lethal fetal anomalies or life-limiting diagnosis that would make it impossible for the fetus to survive outside the womb without “extraordinary medical intervention.”

Alas, the legislators who wrote the bans in the first place have steadfastly insisted that they are as clear as daylight and that “the media” is responsible for causing all of the confusion.

I don’t know, it seems to me that if 100 ob-gyns are telling you that your law is too vague, then your law is probably too vague. Do these lawmakers really think that doctors (the ones without their own television shows and scammy supplements) are stupid? Or that they’re just fucking with them because they want them to have a bad day or feel badly about the legislation they wrote? Do they think the doctors are coming for their self-esteem?

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Do they go to the doctor’s office and say “Doctor, sometimes I get headaches!” and then bristle when the doctor asks them follow-up questions instead of just handing them whatever prescription they want?

Additionally, why are they so scared of making these laws more specific? My guess would be that they are itching to see one of these doctors arrested and prosecuted for performing an abortion illegally in the state, and they think if they doctors are clear on what the rules are, that is less likely to happen. It’s stupid, but it’s also the only thing that makes any sense at all.