Data shows Texas doctors perform abortions to save life of the mother, despite claims from politicians, media

Despite claims from politicians, the media and abortion activists that female health in Texas is at risk with pro-life laws on the books, new numbers released by the state show that doctors do intervene in cases when the life of the mother is at risk. 

The latest data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission on induced terminations of pregnancies (HHSC ITOP) shows that doctors in Texas performed 113 abortions to save pregnant women’s lives in the 22 months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. 

Texas has a pro-life law that went into effect shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which prevents elective abortions beginning at conception with an exception for medically necessary abortions when the pregnancy causes "a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced." Additionally, every state in the country with a pro-life law includes an exception for the life of the mother. 

Vice President Kamala Harris and her campaign have previously claimed that doctors are hindered from performing abortions in the case of a pro-life law when the pregnancy puts a woman’s life at risk. 

When the Texas Supreme Court ruled in May that physicians may use "reasonable medical judgment" to determine whether a pregnancy requires a medically necessary abortion, Harris tweeted: "This Texas Supreme Court ruling means women will continue to be denied access to necessary medical care, putting their health and lives at risk. To the women of Texas: Know you are not alone. @POTUS and I will continue to fight for reproductive freedom."

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When reached for comment, the Harris campaign pointed to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey in which 68% of OBGYNs said the Dobbs ruling has worsened their ability to manage pregnancy-related emergencies and 64% said the decision has worsened pregnancy-related mortality.

"The latest report reaffirms that Kamala Harris’ dire claims about Texas’ protective abortion laws are completely baseless," Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s communications director, said of the data in a press release. "Texas’ laws continue to save unborn babies from abortion while also protecting women’s lives in those rare and tragic cases where pregnancy endangers a pregnant woman’s life or health." 

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"Since the Court overturned Roe, no doctor has been prosecuted by a district attorney, sanctioned by the Texas Medical Board, or sued by the Attorney General, and no pregnant woman has lost her life because of the provisions of Texas’ abortion laws, even with more than 360,000 live births in Texas each year," O’Donnell added.

Dr. Ingrid Skop, vice president and director of medical affairs at Charlotte Lozier Institute, told Fox News Digital that "intentional media misinformation" about Texas pro-life laws initially left many physicians confused and fearful, but that the situation has improved after the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Supreme Court issued guidance to physicians, reassuring them that they may use their "reasonable medical judgment" to determine when to intervene, and the risk of maternal death does not need to be "imminent." 

"The Texas Induced Terminations of Pregnancy (ITOP) Reports also demonstrate that physicians have been intervening in the rare circumstances when an abortion is necessary to save the life of a mother," she said. "In 2023, 62 abortions were performed in hospitals. 77% were performed by labor induction and only 6% by dilation and evacuation (dismemberment) abortion. 90% were performed between 13- and 25-weeks post-fertilization."

"Similarly, the data for the first four months of 2024 demonstrates that 32 abortions have been performed," she added. "Unborn life is being protected in Texas, but the state also prioritizes the life of the mother and allows physicians to provide quality care when severe complications arise."

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"Med Ed" efforts in Texas, as well as Florida, South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Kentucky aim to stop the abortion lobby from spreading what Kelsey Pritchard, the director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called misinformation that confuses doctors and harms women.

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"In Texas, specifically, with this Texas MedEd rule, they made it clear that doctors can continue to rely on their reasonable medical judgment," Pritchard said. "They also made it clear that you should not wait until a woman is actually at the point where her life is in danger. If there is a foreseeable threat, then that allows doctors to act. You don't have to wait until it's a dangerous situation. I think that's a very important point in Texas and in all the pro-life states."

Pritchard said the talking point is a tactic by Democrats to distract from their push to provide all-trimester abortion, which only 10% of Americans support, according to SBA Pro-Life data. A Gallup survey in May estimated 35 percent of Americans support abortion in all circumstances, verus 50 percent supporting it under certain circumstances. Just 12 percent in that poll were in favor of it being totally illegal.

"I think the abortion lobby has been telling this lie for a while now that if there is a pro-life law that will put women in danger and women will die because they won't be able to get emergency care," she said. "That's something they've said for a long time, but we really saw it ramp up with Dobbs, and it has really become their number one talking point, their number one lie in red states, particularly."

"Whether it's a ballot measure fight, a legislative fight or it's a candidate, a Democrat, talking about abortion, this is the number line they go to because they know that the Democrat agenda for all trimester abortion is unpopular with Americans widely," she added. "They use this as the justification for: 'Oh, we can't have any limits, we can't at any point, not in the seventh, eighth, ninth month of pregnancy even, you have to be able to have abortion at all points because, you're putting women in danger.'"

In Florida, Planned Parenthood employee Laura Goodhue said Florida's six-week abortion ban would create a "public health crisis" in the state, while Democratic State Sen. Lauren Book said "women and girls will die" as a result of the law. 

A pregnant woman stands for a portrait in Dallas, Thursday, May 18, 2023.  (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

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In June, the Arizona Democratic AG issued guidance clarifying that the 15-week abortion law does not impede a pregnant woman’s ability to receive treatment when experiencing a miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or another health emergency. But, pro-choice groups posted ads that claimed women's lives were at risk. President Biden himself claimed "women’s lives are in danger" in regard to the law. 

Pritchard said Democrats and the abortion lobby are the ones putting women's lives in danger by telling such "lies."

"That lie is what is putting women in danger, it is what has led some women to delay seeking care," she said. "We've heard some of these horror stories where there are a handful of doctors that are confused about their ability to provide care, like the story of a woman who was told to wait in her car till she was bleeding profusely. That is wrong and those situations are really often created by this misinformation." 

"I would hope that pro-choice, pro-life, we could all agree that this is wrong and that women need to understand the truth, doctors need to understand the truth that lifesaving care is as available now as it has always been," she added. 

Kendall Tietz is a writer with Fox News Digital.