A Texas medical panel on Friday approved guidance for doctors working under one of the nation's most restrictive abortion bans but refused to list specific exceptions to the law, which doctors have complained is dangerously unclear. The decision by the Texas Medical Board came less than a month after the state that had been challenged by doctors and a group of women who argued it stopped them from getting medical care even when their pregnancies became dangerous. The board's refusal to adopt specific exemptions to the Texas abortion ban was not a surprise.
The rebuffed calls to list specific exemptions, and the head of the board said doing so would have been beyond state law and the board's authority. All 16 members of the board, which includes only one obstetrician and gynecologist, were appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who signed the state's abortion ban into law in 2021.
The board, however, modified some of the most controversial reporting requirements for doctors, allowing them seven days to submit documentation about why they provided an emergency or medically necessary abortion. Doctors had previously complained they were required to do that before intervening, even during medical emergencies. The new guidance also eliminated a provision that said doctors should document whether they tried to transfer a patient to avoid performing an abortion.
And it echoed the state Supreme Court's ruling that a doctor does not have to wait until there is a medical emergency t.
