Rebound, after the total ban on abortion in the State of Texas, which was the first in the United States to reverse this right, before the decision of the Supreme Court, a little more than a year. Justice leaned Friday, August 4 in favor of five women who were forced to continue their pregnancy at the risk of their lives, even if the doctors knew that the fetus was not viable.
1 min
With our correspondent in Texas, Thomas Harms
At the helm, women describe the physical and moral ordeal they have suffered. Sobbing, they tell how they had to wait for sepsis before the doctors agreed to perform an abortion. Or how they had to grow an unviable fetus in their wombs and deliver a dying baby with its first breath.
Three weeks after these testimonies, and those of doctors, an Austin judge, Jessica Mangrum, considered Friday that the wording of the Texas law which prohibits abortion with only one exception was too vague and therefore unconstitutional. The exception permitted an abortion ” when a major bodily function or the life of the mother is in imminent danger “.
The judge therefore established that Texan doctors could not be sued if they “ judged in good faith » that the continuation of the pregnancy posed a risk to the life of the mother, could generate an infection, or when it was unlikely that the fetus would survive the pregnancy and remain alive after birth.
Associations for the defense of women’s rights welcomed the judgment, but did not claim victory. The Texas authorities have not ruled out an appeal, which would suspend these authorizations.
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