Texas abortion bans challenged in dramatic court testimony from 3 women : Shots

Samantha Casiano told a Texas courtroom that she should have been able to let her daughter, who had anencephaly, “go to rest sooner.”

Danielle Villasana for NPR

AUSTIN, Texas – Samantha Casiano, who gave birth to a baby who lived just four hours, broke down and became physically ill on the witness stand as she told the story of her doomed pregnancy in an Austin, Texas, courtroom on Wednesday. Her husband, Luis Villasana, rushed to the front of the courtroom to help her, during a hearing in a case challenging the abortion bans in Texas.

Casiano was one of three women who gave dramatic testimony about their pregnancies in the case brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The case, on behalf of 13 patients and two doctors, argues that the medical exceptions to Texas’ laws are unclear and unworkable for doctors in ways that harm patients and that the state has done nothing to clarify its laws.

In Wednesday’s proceeding, which will continue on Thursday, lawyers for Casiano and the other plaintiffs asked the judge to temporarily suspend the bans for people who have medical complications in their pregnancies as the case proceeds. State Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office is asking for the case to be dismissed.

The benches in the roomy, brand new courtroom at the Travis County Civil District Court were filled with reporters, plaintiffs, and their supporters, including several husbands. Members of the anti-abortion rights group Texas Alliance for Life were also in attendance.

Eight attorneys represented the patients and doctors challenging the law. On the other side of the room, two attorneys represented defendant Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Judge Jessica Mangrum, elected as a Democratic…