In a first, five pregnant women sue the state of Texas over abortion ban

In what comes as a first, five pregnant women who were denied abortions despite grave risks to their lives have sued the state of Texas in the US. Center for Reproductive Rights has backed the lawsuit filed and it is the first time that pregnant women have decided to take legal action themselves against the restrictive abortion practices, according to a New York Times report.

The conservative-dominated US Supreme Court in June last year declared that individual states can now legalise or restrict the procedure on their own, overturning the historic "Roe v. Wade" ruling from 1973 that established a woman's right to an abortion.

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Since then, Texas, a historically Red state has banned abortions, barring a few exceptions which a physician determines on his sole authority. In the suit, the women have asked the court to clearly clarify what are the exceptions and under what conditions abortion can be granted to one.

Read more:Louisiana woman carrying skull-less foetus travels over 2,000 km to New York for abortion

Two of the women who sought abortion had fetuses with no skull and yet they were not granted abortion despite scurrying across state borders to seek treatment. Amanda Zurawski, one of the plaintiffs added that the back-and-forth caused tremendous damage to her body. She became septic twice and her fallopian tubes have been permanently closed due to scar tissue.

“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," Zurawski was quoted as saying by the publication.

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Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, named as a defendant in the suit has beena staunch advocate of noabortion practices in the state.

“We’re not going to allow left-wing bureaucrats in Washington to transform our hospitals and emergency rooms into walk-in abortion clinics," he said last year when the court passed its decision.

After the five women filed the lawsuit, Paxton's office released a statement and reiterated the same position,“Now that the Supreme Court has finally overturned Roe, I will do everything in my power to protect mothers, families, and unborn children, and to uphold the state laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature.”

The women are not challenging to overturn state ban on abortion, albeit they simply want transparency on the conditions when a physician can deem the woman fit for an abortion - when it is clear the pregnancy poses a danger to her body.

According to experts, the US Supreme Court's overturn of Roe v. Wade goes against a global trend that has seen abortion restrictions loosen up, particularly in nations like India, Ireland, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia where the Catholic Church continues to have significant sway.

(With inputs from agencies)

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