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By Marin Wolf
The Dallas Morning News
(TNS)
Dallas — The Texas Medical Board will consider issuing guidance to clarify legal exceptions to the state’s abortion bans after months of requests by pregnant women, doctors and even the state Supreme Court. online news
The decision to issue guidance on the law comes after the attorneys and lobbyists Steve and Amy Bresnen filed a petition asking the board to clarify who can receive an abortion under state laws, which allow the procedure only to save the life of the mother.
Some doctors and patients have complained that the vagueness of the Texas law has prevented or delayed health care providers from performing abortions even in dire situations out of fear of prosecution or potential lawsuits.
The board, whose members are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott and charged with regulating the practice of medicine in Texas, has stayed noticeably quiet on abortion regulations. It will meet March 22, starting a 30-day rule-making session.
The meeting agenda published to the Texan Registrar includes “consideration and possible action on rules regarding exceptions to the ban on abortions.”
Last year, the Texas Supreme Court turned down Kate Cox’s plea for permission to end her pregnancy, saying in its decision that physicians, not judges, are the only ones who can determine when someone qualifies for an abortion under a medical exemption. It also said the Texas Medical Board could provide any clarity it deemed necessary.
In the footnotes of its decision, the court defined how the board might provide clarification, be it through hypothetical examples or identifying boundaries to the law. The Texas Medical Board provided similar clarification during the COVID-19 pandemic, a reality that the December opinion references.
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The Bresnens filed their petition in mid-January to “ensure critical care to pregnant females and implement medical emergency exceptions” to the state’s overlapping abortion laws. A set of rules proposed by the lawyers includes identifying the specific conditions that constitute a medical emergency and clarifying when a medical emergency qualifies.
Specifying when and with which conditions meet the exception is the issue at the heart of a case the Texas Supreme Court is set to rule on this year. Twenty Texas women and two doctors sued the state in the case Zurawski vs. Texas, alleging their abortions were delayed or denied because of the laws’ vague wording.
Texas has three bans on the books, each with unique specifications. The so-called Texas Heartbeat Act allows private individuals to bring civil suits against anyone who performs or aids in abortion after the detection of fetal cardiac activity. A “trigger ban” went into effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, outlawing abortion procedures. Then there’s the pre-Roe ban, which is still possibly in effect, that criminalizes performing or providing the means for an abortion.
Texas Impact, an interfaith advocacy organization that advocates for limiting abortion penalties, called on the Texas Medical Board to kick-start the rule-making process. If the law is an order for a cake, Texas Impact executive director Bee Moorhead said, the rules would be the recipe for that cake.
“This isn’t going to change the law, it’s just going to make it clearer,” Moorhouse said.
Moorhead’s organization is asking for guidance on when an emergency qualifies under the exemption, how physicians can ensure their decision meets the standard of reasonable medical judgment and what level of detail needs to be provided to substantiate a claim that an abortion wasn’t protected by the exception.
The Texas Medical Board meeting will be open to the public and held by videoconference, according to the meeting agenda.
©2024 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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