Texas Supreme Court rejects challenge to abortion ban

(NBC) - The Texas Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S. following a lawsuit by women who had serious pregnancy complications.

The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the most significant challenge to Texas' new abortion laws yet.

The ruling on Friday that the medical exceptions in the law were broad enough to withstand constitutional challenge.

The case, Zurawski versus Texas, started with five women arguing the state's near-total abortion laws stopped them from getting medical care for their complicated pregnancies.

In the year plus it took to move through the court system, the case has grown to include 20 women and two doctors.

In August, a Travis County judge issued a temporary injunction that allowed Texans with complicated pregnancies to get an abortion if their doctor made a "good faith judgment" that it was necessary.

The Texas Office of the Attorney General appealed.

The Texas Supreme Court overturned that ruling Friday, saying it, "departed from the law as written without constitutional justification."

The lead plaintiff in the case, Amanda Zurawski, had been told that she had a condition that meant her baby would not survive.

But the Austin woman was forced to wait until she was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of sepsis before being provided an abortion.

Zurawski spent three days in intensive care and was left with a permanently closed fallopian tube from the infection, which affected her ability to have more children.