Amanda Zurawski never wanted to be here. Neither did Lauren Miller. Nor did Lauren Hall or Anna Zargarian.

But they didn’t feel like they had a choice.

The four women repeated that refrain, one by one, on a humid Tuesday afternoon, standing in the shadow of the Texas Capitol. It was the day after they — along with a fifth Texas woman, Ashley Brandt — sued the state after they tried to get abortions following medical complications that in some cases threatened their lives. They are the first people who had been denied abortions to challenge a state ban since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Some were supposed to be at home — new moms on parental leave after nursing healthy, happy pregnancies. One was supposed to be prepared to give birth to twins, due in just a few weeks. But instead, they’ve become the faces of a case, regularly reliving the pain of losing their wanted pregnancies. It’s a duty they told The 19th that they take seriously. By sharing their stories, they hope they’ll be able to prevent others from being forced to experience the pain, fear and illness they’ve endured.

“I don’t want to look back at this time and not have done something,” said Zagarian, who lives in Austin. “It’s not a fun thing to talk about. But this is a pivotal moment in our politics.”

The five women are suing the state in an effort to seek clarity about what medical exceptions, if any, its three active abortion bans permit.

The case is spearheaded by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the law firm that represented abortion providers in Jackson, Mississippi, in the case that resulted in Roe’s overturn. Lawyers representing the women acknowledged that the case, filed Monday night in Texas court, is unlikely to result in a restoration of abortion rights in Texas, the largest state in the country to outlaw the procedure. Instead, they are seeking a ruling from the state court system that could allow physicians more latitude in determining when a patient might need an abortion to protect their health. Nancy Northup, head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said she anticipates similar lawsuits will be filed in other states with abortion bans like Texas.

Texas’ abortion laws, like those in other states that have banned the procedure, have nominal exceptions if the procedure is deemed necessary to save a pregnant person’s life. But in practice, those exceptions have offered patients little recourse. Physicians in Texas and other states have said the way exceptions are written is often too narrow and too unclear — meaning that medical providers may have to wait until the patients’ condition becomes life-threatening before they can provide care.

The plaintiffs in the case, Zurawski v. State of Texas, all hoped to keep their pregnancies. But for each of them, complications developed that made it unsafe to stay pregnant. Four left the state for abortions — care their doctors recommended as medically advisable but said they were unable to provide under Texas law.

Read the full article about Texas abortion lawsuit by Shefali Luthra at The 19th.