Five Texas residents were denied abortions despite serious complications. On Monday night, they filed a complaint against the anti-abortion laws in force in this vast conservative state. This is the first complaint filed by women who have been refused abortion since the US Supreme Court in June dynamited the right to abortion.

It "contains frightening, direct testimonies of women who almost lost their lives after a refusal of care," said Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who gave her support Tuesday in a statement. These women wanted to carry their pregnancies to term but had discovered during medical examinations that their fetus was not viable.



"Danger of death or severe disability for the mother"

In their complaint, they claim that their doctors refused to perform abortions, despite the risk of bleeding and infection. They blame their reluctance on the various laws prohibiting abortion in Texas, one of which provides for up to 99 years in prison for doctors defying the ban.

These laws provide exceptions in cases of "danger of death or severe disability to the mother," but according to the plaintiffs, they are too vague. One of them, Amanda Zurawski, 35, had her water pocket rupture at 17 weeks of pregnancy, far too early for the fetus to survive. Her hospital, however, waited until she showed signs of infection, three days later, before expelling the fetus.

According to the complaint, she developed sepsis, spent several days in intensive care and lost one of her tubes because of this refusal of care. Unlike other complaints filed by doctors or associations since the Supreme Court dynamited the right to abortion in June, this appeal does not attack the ban on abortion but asks the court to "clarify the extent of the exceptions".

  • USA
  • World
  • ABORTION
  • Texas
  • Women's rights