Texas SUED For Forcing Women To Carry Fetuses With No Skulls & More, Causing 'Catastrophic Harm'

In a powerful new lawsuit, five women are suing the state of Texas after they were denied abortions despite facing life-threatening situations — all because of the new state laws enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.

In court documents filed in state court on Monday by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of five women and two doctors, which was obtained by NPR, they declared:

“[The women] have been denied necessary and potentially life-saving obstetrical care because medical professionals throughout the state fear liability under Texas’s abortion bans.”

As we’ve been following, last summer, the federal constitutional right to an abortion was axed, allowing individual states to ban and restrict abortion access as they please. Texas was one of thirteen states to immediately ban abortions, though they claim those expecting can seek medical attention should they be at risk of harm. Yet, according to the New York Times on Tuesday, five women are now claiming they were denied treatment because their doctors were too afraid of potential repercussions!

Per the outlet, the women in the lawsuit come from a range of backgrounds with some who are married and already have children. The common denominator? They all made the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancies — because their lives depended on it! Unfortunately, it wasn’t an easy process since their doctors would not only NOT perform the procedure, but they also wouldn’t suggest treatment options or forward their medical records to other providers. This puts the patients at risk of hemorrhage and life-threatening infections.

Take Amanda Zurawski, for instance. She became pregnant in early 2022 after 18 months of IVF treatments. But in the 17th week of her pregnancy, a scan found her cervical membranes had begun to prolapse. Specialists said her fetus wouldn’t survive, but she was then told she was not “sick enough” to receive an abortion. Her docs insisted they wouldn’t perform the procedure until she became “acutely ill” or if the heartbeat of her unborn child stopped.

Eventually, her water broke, but she didn’t go into labor. Without amniotic fluid, the fetus would 100% die, but because it still had a heartbeat, she was sent home to wait. Desperate, she and her husband considered driving to Mexico, but they were told to stay within 20 minutes of a hospital in case she went into labor. Amanda was also scared of prosecution, so she stayed. Unfortunately, her health quickly went downhill, but docs didn’t induce her delivery until she was rushed to the ER with a blood infection. She then developed a second infection and had to be given a blood transfusion! Yikes! This experience will now haunt her forever, she noted:

“Every ultrasound is going to be terrifying, not just scary, but traumatic.”

Because of the medical emergency, Amanda became septic twice and was left with one fallopian tube that was permanently closed. She continued:

“Last time I heard a heartbeat inside of me, I was wishing for it to stop.”

The 35-year-old hopes her story will help anti-abortionists to change their mind about these new laws, saying:

“You don’t think you’re somebody who’s going to need an abortion, let alone an abortion to save my life. […] If anybody reads my story, I don’t care where they are on the political spectrum, very few people would agree there is anything pro-life about this.”

Lauren Miller, another 35-year-old plaintiff, took a different route and decided to sneak out of the state to receive an abortion in Colorado at the recommendation of her doctor. She had been expecting twins when at 12 weeks she found out that one fetus had a genetic defect called Trisomy 18, which included a malformed brain and an incomplete abdominal wall and heart. A specialist told her to rush to get an abortion in another state to save her own life as well as the life of her other child. She recalled:

“The feeling of packing was almost like we were fleeing Texas, which was such a strange feeling. […] I’m from Texas, I have generations of Texans, here we’re fleeing Texas.”

Such a harrowing situation to be in while literally just fighting for your right to life-saving medical intervention!!

Anna Zargarian suffered a preterm premature rupture of membranes after her water broke at just 19 weeks. She underwent an abortion in Colorado after her doctor would not do so because the fetus still had a heartbeat. She fears getting pregnant again in Texas since she was told she is at a high risk of experiencing the same pregnancy complications again. Ashley Brandt also faced complications with one fetus when she was expecting twins. She was able to obtain a selective abortion in Colorado but was then sent to the ER where she felt a “distinct uneasiness and confusion” when she faced other complications, the lawsuit noted:

“It appeared that the medical staff thought they were not supposed to know about Ashley’s abortion or discuss it with her.”

This left her “plagued by fear and stress” for the rest of the pregnancy until she ultimately delivered one healthy baby at 38 weeks. Finally, 28-year-old Lauren Hall was 18 weeks pregnant when she discovered her fetus had no skull and an undeveloped brain. She was also urged to seek an abortion. She hopes her story will be an eye-opener to people who consider themselves “pro-life,” including many of her relatives and neighbors, who believe that if a fetus has a fatal condition, it’s a “loophole” for people seeking an abortion. She explained:

“A lot of them are in support of this ban, but they don’t understand the scale of it. […] They had this very narrow idea of what somebody who seeks an abortion looks like. They think it’s somebody who’s loose, who doesn’t want to take birth control.”

While anti-abortion groups have argued that restrictions to abortions shouldn’t harm women’s health and that the laws prevent only what they consider “elective” abortions, the plaintiffs are calling BS on this. While the suit doesn’t intend to overturn the abortion ban, it does ask Texas to confirm that the laws allow physicians to offer abortions when necessary and “where the pregnancy is unlikely to result in the birth of a living child with sustained life.”

The suit names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as a defendant along with the state medical board and its directors, including executive director Stephen Brint Carlton. In an email to CBS News on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Paxton said he is “committed to doing everything in his power to protect mothers, families, and unborn children, and he will continue to defend and enforce the laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature.” The women are not suing their medical teams who denied them the procedures because they said they were doing the best under the circumstances. You can read a lot more on the lawsuit HERE. You can also hear the women discuss the “catastrophic harms” they faced (below).