That pro-life Texas laws supposedly require doctors to deny medical care to mothers in health emergencies until they pose an imminent risk of death has become a common talking point for supporters of abortion. As John McCormack points out on the homepage today, though, the Center for Reproductive Rights lawsuit against the law concedes that’s not true.

The lawsuit acknowledges that the medical emergency “exception does not require that any of the risks to the pregnant person be imminent. To the contrary, the exception only requires that a physician certify that the patient is ‘in danger of death’ or has a condition that creates ‘a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.’” The lawsuit thus correctly contradicts false reporting in the media that Texas’s “medical emergency” exception is undefined or that the law requires doctors to delay care until a life-threatening condition puts the mother in imminent peril of death or injury.

The lawsuit claims that the law is confusing and that hospitals are “overcomplying” with it. Maybe the center should put in a word with its allies to dispel some of this confusion?