5 women sue Texas, saying abortion laws risked their lives

Five women are suing the state of Texas, claiming they were denied abortions even though their pregnancies endangered their lives, according to Fox News.

The lawsuit claims that the Texas abortion law is creating confusion among doctors, saying that some have been turning away pregnant women who are experiencing complications with their pregnancies out of fear of legal reprimand.

The Texas law prohibits "most abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected via ultrasound, which is at roughly six weeks gestation," according to Heritage.org.

The litigation, brought by five women and two doctors, says that one of the women was forced to wait until she was septic before she was given an abortion.

Sepsis is described by the Mayo Clinic as a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection, which can lead to septic shock, which is a severe drop in blood pressure.

The other four women say they were forced to travel out of state to receive medical care after being allegedly endangered by their pregnancies.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is "committed to doing everything in his power to protect mothers, families, and unborn children, and he will continue to defend and enforce the laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature," a spokesperson said in an email to Fox News.

The plaintiffs are seeking clarification of the law, claiming that it is vaguely written and that medical professionals fear punishment from the state if the government does not determine a woman's pregnancy-related situation to be an emergency.

"Physicians in Texas are even afraid to speak out publicly about this issue for fear of retaliation," says Damla Karsan, one of the doctors involved with the lawsuit, adding that "widespread fear and confusion regarding the scope of Texas’s abortion bans has chilled the provision of necessary obstetric care, including abortion care."

Recent studies claim that early estimates regarding the amount of abortions that were prevented by Texas' law were greatly exaggerated, disputing an original figure of a 60% decrease, instead claiming that the figure is closer to 10%.

One of the studies claimed that an average of 1,391 women traveled to one of seven nearby states for an abortion each month between September 2021, when the heartbeat law was enacted, and the end of the year.

Also in Sept. 2021, a Texas doctor openly bragged about performing an illegal abortion.

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