The Texas Senate may soon decide on a bill that would prohibit parents from filing “wrongful birth” suits. Wrongful birth suits allow parents of a child born with a genetic disability to sue their doctor if they say they were not properly warned about the potential for the disability or counseled on their options, including the parents’ choice to have an abortion based on the severity of the condition. Nine states have enacted bans on wrongful birth lawsuits, including Arizona, South Dakota, and Indiana.
Wrongful birth lawsuits are different than wrongful pregnancy cases, in which women can sue physicians if they become pregnant after receiving an operation to prevent them from having children. They are also different from wrongful life suits, which are brought on behalf of disabled children and are not recognized in Texas.
The wrongful birth legal issue in Texas dates back to a 1975 Texas Supreme Court case—Jacobs v. Theimer, 519 S.W.2d 846 (1975). Dortha Jean Jacobs, the plaintiff in that case, contracted rubella during her first trimester, giving birth to a child with defective organs. Consequently, the Jacobs’ medical bills totaled more than $21,000 by 1973. Jacobs and her husband sued Dr. Louis M. Theimer on grounds that she failed to diagnose the rubella and inform them of potential long-term risks to the fetus. The Texas Supreme Court sided with Jacobs, awarding her family the funds needed to care for the child’s disability. Since the Jacobs case, wrongful birth lawsuits in Texas have been very rare. In fact, medical malpractice attorneys in Texas say they rarely, if ever, see wrongful birth lawsuits.
Lawmakers brought the bill before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs last week in a hearing with dramatic and emotional public debate. Senator Brandon Creighton, who authored the bill, said allowing the lawsuits could encourage doctors to seek out every possible disability and even promote abortions to avoid litigation. Creighton said the bill would send a message that Texas “does not believe that a life in and of itself is an injury in which parents need a damage payment.” “The presence of a disability in a child should not be grounds for a lawsuit,” Creighton said at a Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on February 27.
Proponents of the bill say that it is needed to protect doctors from wrongful birth lawsuits and to protect the rights of the disabled. Proponents also argue that parents will still be able to sue doctors for negligence if needed.
Opponents called it another attempt by the state to infringe upon a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion and that it essentially allows doctors to withhold information from patients, and impose their religious beliefs upon them. “It seems to be axiomatic that we should have to stand up and say that it shouldn’t be policy for the state of Texas to excuse doctors from lying to their patients, and that’s what this bill does,” said Blake Rocap, legislative counsel for National Abortion Rights Action League / Pro-Choice Texas. He said doctors should not be held liable for disabilities “they did not cause,” and that doctors “may overcautiously seek out all potential disabilities and promote abortions in order to avoid liability.” Despite the objections, the committee voted unanimously to send the bill to the full Senate.