Five Texans, in which the doctors they refused to have an abortion despite the serious complications they faced, they filed suit against the anti-abortion laws in place in this conservative State.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents them, this is the first appeal by women since the US Supreme Court dynamited the right to abortion last June, overturning a 50-year-old ruling.

The appeal “contains harrowing, first-hand accounts of women who nearly lost their lives after being denied medical care”US Vice President Kamala Harris commented, expressing her support for the five women.

The plaintiffs are expected to hold a press conference later today. All of them tell them that they wanted the babies they were carrying but discovered, when they underwent medical tests, that the embryos were not viable. The attending doctors refused to perform an abortion on them, even though they were at risk of bleeding and infection. They attribute the doctors’ refusal to the abortion laws in Texas. One of them provides for up to 99 years in prison for doctors who defy the ban.

Although exceptions are also provided in the case where there is a “risk of death or disability of the mother”, these are very vague.

One of the women, Amanda Zurafsky, 35, said her waters broke when she was still 17 weeks pregnant, too early for the fetus to survive. The hospital waited until she first showed symptoms of infection, three days later, for doctors to perform a therapeutic curettage. She says she developed sepsis, spent several days in intensive care and lost a fallopian tube because doctors refused to provide her with medical care.

Another woman, Lorraine Miller, was carrying twins and was told one of the fetuses was not viable. Despite the risks to her own health and the development of the other fetus, the medical staff did not remove the non-viable fetus. Miller was forced to travel to Colorado, at her own expense, to undergo the surgery. She is expected to give birth at the end of the month.

Lauryn Hall discovered at 18 weeks pregnant that the fetus had no skull and would not survive. She was forced to travel to Seattle to terminate her pregnancy.

Unlike other appeals filed by doctors or organizations, these women are not directly challenging the abortion ban but are asking the court to clarify the scope of the exceptions.