(Reuters) – Texas’ highest court on Friday refused to ensure that doctors are not prosecuted for abortions they believe are necessary in medically complicated pregnancies, rejecting a lawsuit by 22 patients and physicians.
The Texas Supreme Court’s decision follows an earlier ruling from the court denying a woman’s request for an emergency abortion of a non-viable pregnancy. In both cases, plaintiffs said the medical exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban was unclear, and left doctors unwilling to perform medically necessary abortions in the face of severe penalties including potentially life in prison.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Bill Berkrot)
