DALLAS (AP) — A Texas medical panel on Friday rebuffed calls to list specific exceptions to one of the most restrictive abortions bans in the U.S., which physicians say is dangerously unclear and has forced women with serious pregnancy complications to leave the state.
The head of the Texas Medical Board also said that wider issues surrounding the law — such as the lack of exceptions in cases of rape or incest — were beyond the authority of the 16-member panel, twelve of whom are men.
Only one member of the board is an obstetrician and gynecologist.
“We can only do so much,” said Dr. Sherif Zaafran, the board’s president.
The public meeting dealt new discouragement and anger to opponents who have urged courts and Texas lawmakers for nearly two years to clarify exceptions to the state’s ban.
In December, Kate Cox, a mother of two from Dallas, sued the state for the right to obtain an abortion after her fetus developed a fatal condition and she made multiple trips to an emergency room.
Cox wound up leaving the state for an abortion before the Texas Supreme Court, whose nine justices are all elected Republicans, ruled that she had not shown her life was in danger. The court, however, called on the state medical board to offer more guidance.
Zaafran said that that while the board has some discretion as far as helping to define what the law says they don’t have discretion in rewriting it, which would be up the Legislature.
He and other members of the board were appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the ban in 2021.
The board’s proposed guidelines on exceptions to Texas’ ban on abortion from the moment of fertilization, issued Friday, advise doctors to meticulously document their decision-making when determining if continuing a woman’s pregnancy would threaten her life …
