Texas Republicans and Democrats have found common ground on the issue of abortion, passing a bill that provides greater clarity about how Texas law allows immediate treatment for a life-threatening condition known as previable premature rupture of membranes (PPROM). The bill, H.B. 3058, amends the penal code to state that a “physician or health care provider is justified in exercising reasonable medical judgment” in cases of treating PPROM or ectopic pregnancies anywhere in the body. Texas law already excluded treatment of ectopic pregnancies from the definition of abortion. The bill also says the state medical board may not take disciplinary action against a physician in such cases and that treating such cases is an “affirmative defense” in any civil lawsuit.
Texas state senator Bryan Hughes, a Republican sponsor of the bill, said that “Texas law is already clear, but because some doctors and hospitals were not following the law, we wanted to remove any doubt and remove any excuse for not giving the care that the moms need in these cases.” Hughes noted that “Democrats and Republicans recognize that women were being harmed by this interpretation of the law,” and added that “that’s why you see the big numbers, big majorities in the house and the senate agreeing to do this.” The Texas senate passed the bill unanimously, and the house agreed to it by a 128-12 vote. Texas governor Greg Abbott signed it into law on Wednesday.
National and Texas pro-life groups have been emphasizing for a year that Texas’s abortion laws do not require medical providers to wait until a threat to the life of the mother becomes imminent. A lawsuit filed by the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights against the State of Texas acknowledged that the abortion laws’ “exception does not require that any of the risks to the pregnant person be imminent” and that “physicians are over-complying with the laws to the detriment of their patients’ lives.” Some Texas hospitals have dangerously delayed care in cases of PPROM.
Hughes is hopeful the new measure will finally get those Texas hospital administrators and lawyers who have either misinterpreted the law or have been unreasonably afraid of it to reverse course. He’s also hopeful that the Texas Medical Board, an official state agency, will provide formal guidance to hospitals about what the law means. The agency has so far not provided guidance, and a spokesman told National Review on Friday it couldn’t comment due to pending litigation.
Fears stoked by the media over Texas’s six-week abortion limit, enforced only via civil lawsuits, have been overblown: In nearly two years since the law took effect, the only doctor known to have been sued was one who wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which he deliberately attempted to create a legal challenge by suggesting that he performed an illegal elective abortion. In the year since Texas’s criminal abortion law has been in effect, no medical provider has been prosecuted. Abortion advocates have blamed Texas’s abortion laws themselves for what they call “understandable confusion” about what the exception protecting the life and physical health of the mother allows, but abortion opponents have pointed out that life-threatening conditions were routinely treated before Roe, and they were routinely treated since Texas’s 20-week abortion ban took effect in 2013. The 2013 law included an exception that is identical to the laws in effect since 2021 and 2022.
However, some hospitals have harmed women, such as Amanda Zurawski, by delaying treatment in cases of PPROM, waiting until the mother’s condition became dire. Pro-life groups have been making the case before those incidents occurred that Texas law allows immediate delivery in cases of PPROM, even though some mothers will choose expectant management. Pro-lifers have been urging those in positions of authority to ensure hospitals properly understand the law. As National Review recently editorialized, providing clarifying guidance is “perhaps the single most important thing pro-life officials can do right now.” Texas representative Ann Johnson, the Democratic house sponsor of H.B. 3058, issued a press release on Wednesday that said “HB 3058 ensures that pregnant women who are experiencing complications receive the medical treatment they need in a timely manner.”
