Goal: Get clarity for physicians on how they can safely treat pregnant women while protecting the patient-physician relationship.
Recap: Physicians entered the 2023 legislative session with heavy concerns over and difficulties in interpreting Texas' abortion statutes when caring for pregnant women in crisis. A last-minute bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbott now provides some legal defenses under Texas' abortion ban when treating certain potentially life-threatening pregnancy complications.
House Bill 3058 by Rep. Ann Johnson (D-Houston) and Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Tyler) creates a narrow exception under Texas' "trigger" law, which banned most abortions in the state following the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. That trigger law does include an exception for life-threatening conditions arising from pregnancy. Since that high court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, providing abortion in Texas in violation of the law is a felony offense.
HB 3058 does not change existing Texas law prohibiting abortion; it does, however, allow for an exemption from civil liability under the trigger law when a physician “exercised reasonable medical judgment in providing medical treatment to a pregnant woman in response to: 1) an ectopic pregnancy at any location; or 2) a pre-viable premature rupture of membranes.” The bill created the exception by offering physicians an "affirmative defense" in a liability claim – in other words, the physician must show he or she exercised reasonable judgment in providing such treatment. The bill also contains a similar defense to criminal liability.
However, HB 3058 does not clearly address whether this exception applies to the trigger law’s mandatory license revocation. Nor does the bill provide defenses to Texas’ “heartbeat bill,” Senate Bill 8 passed in 2021, which allows for private, civil lawsuits for abortions performed after fetal cardiac activity can be detected (generally six weeks gestation).
HB 3058 passed the House on May 12 and did not clear the Senate until May 24, just five days before the session ended. As HB 3058 rapidly evolved, TMA worked closely with lawmakers in an attempt to inform the measure on behalf of Texas physicians hindered by the interplay of Texas' complicated abortion laws, which TMA experts continue to analyze along with HB 3058.
TMA Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief Lobbyist Clayton Stewart recognizes the solution is not perfect, but says it represents a step in the right direction in addressing some of the unintended consequences of such laws in an equally complex political landscape.
"This was a clear acknowledgement from leadership that medicine needed clarification, and it shows that we were listened to," he said. The bill was "very specific to what we were asking for, which is really medically necessary care."
HB 3058 takes effect Sept. 1.
Dovetailing with other maternal health wins this session, medicine also secured a victory in passage of House Bill 916, which “will help to prevent unintended pregnancies and give women more control over their reproductive health,” TMA lobbyist Caitlin Flanders said.
The bill requires health plans, including Medicaid and Medicaid managed care, to allow women with an existing prescription for a contraceptive medication to obtain up to a 12-month supply at one pharmacy visit. That’s after receiving an initial 90-day supply if the prescription is new.
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