20 women are now suing Texas, saying state abortion laws endangered them – By Selena Simmons-Duffin (NPR) / Nov 15, 2023
Cristina Nuñez’s doctors had always advised her not to get pregnant. She has diabetes, end-stage renal disease and other health conditions, and when she unexpectedly did become pregnant, it made her extremely sick. Now she is suing her home state of Texas, arguing that the abortion laws in the state delayed her care and endangered her life.
Nuñez and six other women joined an ongoing lawsuit over Texas’s abortion laws. The plaintiffs allege the exception for when a patient’s life is in danger is too narrow and vague, and endangered them during complicated pregnancies.
The case was originally filed in March with five patient plaintiffs, but more and more patients have joined the suit. The total number of patients suing Texas in this case is now 20 (two OB-GYN doctors are also part of the lawsuit). After a dramatic hearing in July, a district court judge agreed with the plaintiffs that the law needed to change, but the state immediately appealed her ruling directly to the Texas Supreme Court. That move allows Texas’ three overlapping abortion bans to stand.
In the July hearing, lawyers for the Texas Attorney General’s office argued that women had not been harmed by the state’s laws and suggested that their doctors were responsible for any harms they claimed.
