Texas Supreme Court basically says there are no exceptions to the abortion ban. It is difficult to take their ruling seriously as their arguments are inherently contradictory, but this is what people wanted when they vote for RepubliKKKlans, election after election, time after time. This is what they elected RepubliKKKlans to do, and they’re doing it with what, I assume, is barely a peep from the electorate. I don’t have access to Texas newscasts, but I’m guessing this is a news story that most morons are tuning out, and the rest are simply shrugging their shoulders while thinking to themselves, “Glad it’s not me!” — yet. I’ve quoted key passages below.
Only a doctor can exercise “reasonable medical judgment” to decide whether a pregnant woman “has a life-threatening physical condition,” making an abortion necessary to save her life or to save her from “a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” If a doctor, using her “reasonable medical judgment,” decides that a pregnant woman has such a condition, then the exception applies, and Texas law does not prohibit the abortion. … Some difficulties in pregnancy, however, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses.
A woman who meets the medical-necessity exception need not seek a court order to obtain an abortion. Under the law, it is a doctor who must decide that a woman is suffering from a life-threatening condition during a pregnancy, raising the necessity for an abortion to save her life or to prevent impairment of a major bodily function. The law leaves to physicians—not judges—both the discretion and the responsibility to exercise their reasonable medical judgment, given the unique facts and circumstances of each patient.
Though the statute affords physicians discretion, it requires more than a doctor’s mere subjective belief. By requiring the doctor to exercise “reasonable medical judgment,” the Legislature determined that the medical judgment involved must meet an objective standard. Dr. Karsan asserted that she has a “good faith belief” that Ms. Cox meets the exception’s requirements. Certainly, a doctor cannot exercise “reasonable medical judgment” if she does not hold her judgment in good faith. But the statute requires that judgment be a “reasonable medical” judgment, and Dr. Karsan has not asserted that her “good faith belief” about Ms. Cox’s condition meets that standard. Judges do not have the authority to expand the statutory exception to reach abortions that do not fall within its text under the guise of interpreting it. The trial court erred in applying a different, lower standard instead of requiring reasonable medical judgment.
The exception does not hold a doctor to medical certainty, nor does it cover only adverse results that will happen immediately absent an abortion, nor does it ask the doctor to wait until the mother is within an inch of death or her bodily impairment is fully manifest or practically irreversible. The exception does not mandate that a doctor in a true emergency await consultation with other doctors who may not be available. Rather, the exception is predicated on a doctor’s acting within the zone of reasonable medical judgment, which is what doctors do every day. An exercise of reasonable medical judgment does not mean that every doctor would reach the same conclusion.
Sumpreme Court of Texas
The irony and the hypocrisy of this ruling are laid out near the beginning of the order when the justices glibly claim, “Only a doctor can exercise ‘reasonable medical judgment’ to decide whether a pregnant woman ‘has a life-threatening physical condition,’ making an abortion necessary to save her life or to save her from ‘a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function’ [emphasis added].” Then, these RepubliKKKlan justices spend the following pages explaining why their judgment is better than the doctor’s. They didn’t like the decision of the plaintiff’s doctor, who recommended an abortion, so they simply claimed her determination was not reasonable while simultaneously reassuring other doctors that they are the only ones capable of making medical decisions as long as it does not disconform to what the justices might rule on the matter later. Do these Texas Supreme Court justices actually think doctors can feel supported or confident in their decisions, given the high court’s blatant hypocrisy? Of course, not! But that’s the point. These RepubliKKKlan judges say — with a wink — only doctors can decide when an abortion is a medical exception. I promise no doctor will make any decision on performing an abortion, realizing the Texas Supreme Court could rule differently later. In short, there are no such things as exceptions, despite what the courts and law say. And that is precisely the way Texans want it! Oh, well. More women need to die, and then maybe something will change, but I doubt it. People get the government they deserve and desire, which is a judge second-guessing the decisions made between a patient and their doctor! This is what a dying country — figuratively and literally — looks like. Welcome to stupid America. Exactly what I expected.