DALLAS — Kate Cox, the woman whose high-profile request for an abortion was denied by the Texas Supreme Court, joined doctors, lawyers and others giving feedback to the Texas Medical Board Monday on proposed rules outlining exceptions to the state's near-total abortion ban.
The medical board held a virtual hearing to hear stakeholder comments on the guidelines, which received mixed reviews when they were unveiled in March. They did not outline specific exceptions to the abortion law but rather echoed the legislation and court rulings and mandated additional documentation for doctors who provide the procedure.
"The new rules will create additional hurdles for patients like me who are just trying to access healthcare we need," Cox told the board. "I’m afraid the rules this board are now proposing wouldn’t have helped me either."
The newly-elected chair of the Texas Medical Association Board also raised concerns about the guidelines.
"Remember dead mothers do not lead to live babies," Dr. Joseph Valenti said.
The OB-GYN from Denton argued against the additional documentation requirements, which would have doctors outline alternatives considered when a doctor performs an abortion.
"We don’t want to be documenting while we’re having blood loss or a baby’s dropping heart tones," he said. "We don’t want to go through that checklist and create a delay prior to doing what we must do."
The Texas Medical Association represents 57,000 doctors, residents and medical students across the state and is the largest medical society in Texas.
In response to the criticism, Texas Medical Board Executive Director Brint Carlton said the board's intention was not to force doctors to wait until a woman is near death before providing an abortion -- a concern one woman said led her to wait days before doctors would provide the care.
"Our thought was not that someone has to be on death’s door to do something," he said. "We can certainly look at ways to make that clearer."
The current rules are under consideration and could be implemented as soon as late June -- or could be re-issued for additional public comment if the board makes significant changes.
The board, which initially expressed resistance to issuing any sort of guidelines, eventually did so after the Texas Supreme Court requested they provide clarity to doctors in its ruling on the Cox case.