Texas abortion restrictions are in court docket after 13 ladies sued the state AG and medical board. Women with sophisticated pregnancies are telling the court docket how the state’s abortion bans affected them.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
It’s the second day of a court docket listening to difficult abortion bans in Texas.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Thirteen ladies who had being pregnant problems and had been denied abortions sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the state medical board. Some of those ladies took the stand and shared their heartbreaking experiences.
MARTIN: NPR Selena Simmons-Duffin is in Austin masking the proceedings, and he or she’s with us now. Selena, welcome. Thanks for becoming a member of us.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Hi, Michel.
MARTIN: So let’s simply begin with the listening to that started yesterday. Would you simply inform us about it?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yeah. I imply, it was extraordinarily intense. There was emotional testimony. The room was very quiet, and at instances all people was crying, together with attorneys for the state. One of the individuals who testified was Samantha Casiano. I used to be truly the primary particular person to publish her story in April. She came upon round Christmas of final yr that she was pregnant with a fetus who had anencephaly, which suggests a part of its mind and cranium didn’t type. It is at all times deadly, however she could not afford to get an abortion out of state and he or she could not get one in Texas due to the bans. Her daughter was born early and lived for under 4 hours. Here is her lawyer, Molly Duane, questioning her on the witness stand yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MOLLY DUANE: What did you concentrate on throughout these 4 hours?
SAMANTHA CASIANO: I simply stored telling myself and my child that I’m so sorry that this needed to occur to you. I felt so unhealthy. She had no mercy. There was no mercy there for her.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: At one level, Casiano was so overcome with emotion, she truly turned bodily in poor health on the stand, and the court docket rapidly adjourned for a break.
MARTIN: It does sound intense. So what are the plaintiffs asking for?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights are asking the choose on this court docket in Travis County, Judge Jessica Mangrum, for a brief injunction on the abortion bans in instances of being pregnant problems. There is a really slender exception for emergency abortions in Texas, however they argue that the language is unclear and it leaves out lots of the sufferers on this swimsuit who had been harmed by having to attend or journey for – out of state for care.
MARTIN: And how is the state of Texas responding?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The state is asking the choose to dismiss the case. They’re arguing that the sufferers haven’t got standing as a result of they are not at the moment being harmed and future hurt in future pregnancies is barely hypothetical, and so they’re saying that the state cannot be blamed for the denial of care, however moderately their docs ought to be blamed. Here’s Texas Assistant Attorney General Amy Pletscher questioning one of many plaintiffs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
AMY PLETSCHER: At any time, did Attorney General Paxton inform you that you simply could not obtain an abortion?
AMANDA ZURAWSKI: I by no means spoke to Attorney General Ken Paxton straight, no.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: She truly requested that query of each affected person on the stand yesterday. And answering her in that clip was Amanda Zurawski. Her water broke too early at 17 weeks, however she was denied an induction or abortion, and whereas ready for therapy, she truly went into septic shock and was within the ICU for 3 days. After the listening to yesterday, Zurawski stated she was shocked by how callous the state’s cross-examination of her was.
ZURAWSKI: I survived sepsis and I do not suppose immediately was a lot much less traumatic than that.
MARTIN: The entire expertise sounds, , gut-wrenching. And I perceive that there is extra testimony immediately?
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yes. The witnesses immediately are all physicians. One is definitely suing as a affected person who herself needed to journey out of state for an abortion. The others are knowledgeable witnesses. And one of many physicians is being referred to as by the state and can clarify why she doesn’t suppose the medical exemption is just too slender or unclear. It’s anticipated to be one other full day, and the ruling may come at any level after it concludes.
MARTIN: That’s NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin. Selena, thanks a lot for sharing this reporting with us.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Yes, thanks for having me.
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