The New Yorker:

With a statewide ban in effect, an unlikely political coalition works to insure that women can get lifesaving care.

 By Stephania Taladrid

In the fall of 2022, the Texas representative Ann Johnson met with a group of ob-gyns who wanted her to know that their state’s anti-abortion laws were risking women’s lives. Johnson is a Democrat in a red state, with a reputation for bipartisan effectiveness and an avowed interest in public-health issues. Her district, the 134th, includes the Texas Medical Center—a vast research and treatment complex, which Johnson calls a “shining beacon in the state, and a draw to people around the world.” In the meeting, though, the doctors described an atmosphere of frightening constraint.

A year earlier, the Texas Senate had passed S.B. 8, a law that banned abortions past the sixth week of pregnancy—or even earlier, if an ultrasound revealed electrical activity in fetal cells. Hospitals and lawyers were left scrambling to interpret the law. Did it also apply to miscarriage care? What if abortion was medically necessary? In the absence of clear guidelines, doctors were obliged to consult with peers or ethics committees regarding conditions as common as preterm ruptures of the amniotic sac, which account for roughly a third of premature births. While the deliberations stretched on, their patients’ risk of infection and illness grew.

Go to link