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When Sarah Harrison addressed the Texas Medical Board at a virtual hearing Monday, she added her name to the growing list of Texas women who have shared stories of being denied medically necessary abortions.

Her testimony provided a timely example of exactly how confusing the state’s abortion laws can be in action, even to those tasked with enforcing them.

Harrison, an Austin attorney, learned late last year that one of her twins was not going to survive outside the womb. Her doctors advised her to travel out of state for a selective reduction to terminate the nonviable fetus.

On Monday, Harrison asked the medical board to more explicitly inform doctors they can perform selective reductions if continuing the pregnancy threatens the other fetus’ life. She pointed to the part of the law that says it is not an abortion if it is intended to “save the life or preserve the health of an unborn child.”

Stephen “Brint” Carlton, the board’s executive director, corrected her, saying that line applies to things like fetal surgeries and other interventions aimed at saving single pregnancies, not selective reductions of multiples. But then board chair Dr. Sherif Zaafran chimed in, saying that, in general, if a doctor feels a selective reduction is the standard of care and other expert physicians agree, it could potentially be allowed.

Harrison pushed back, saying her doctors did believe a selective reduction to be the standard of care.

“Under threat of criminal prosecution and losing their license, they were not going to provide a reduction because they couldn’t prove that I was at serious risk of losing my life or serious bodily function,” she said.

Later in the hearing, a retired OB/GYN said he didn’t believe Harrison would have qualified for an abortion in Texas. Then, a health lawyer weighed in to say she agreed with Harrison’s interpretation of the law.

“I thought that exception applied until I heard you today,” Louise Joy, an attorney who advises Texas hospitals, said to Carlton. “But that’s the very confusion we have.”

This is but one example of the ongoing confusion among doctors and lawyers about how to interpret the new abortion laws. The medical board has proposed guidance to clarify some of that uncertainty, but five hours of testimony and hundreds of written comments later, it’s clear no one is particularly pleased with their first attempt including, it seems, the medical board itself.

Zaafran said repeatedly that they would consider revisiting aspects of the proposal where doctors’ interpretations of the guidance was at odds with the boards’ intent.

“If the board was perfect, which we’re certainly not, then that would be it,” Zaafran said. “But having 1,000 sets of eyes [helps with] highlighting things that we may have overlooked and blind spots that we may not have been able to highlight.”

Guidance pushback

The Texas Medical Board initially resisted calls to issue guidance to doctors on how to interpret the state’s new abortion laws. Even after the Texas Supreme Court called on the licensing agency to “assess various hypothetical circumstances, provide best practices, identify red lines, and the like,” the board averred.

But after Steve and Amy Bresnen, Austin attorneys and health lobbyists, filed an official petition, the board conceded, issuing this first proposal in March. At Monday’s stakeholder hearing, doctors, lawyers and advocates across the political spectrum testified that the guidance did not clarify when doctors can act and, in fact, adds additional confusion.

In addition to gathering all the definitions from different abortion statutes in one place, the guidance primarily lists out what doctors are expected to document when deciding whether to perform an abortion.

“Unfortunately, the increased requirements for documentation are truly unworkable,” testified Dr. Richard Todd Ivey, a Houston OB/GYN. “The need for literature searches, attempts to transfer patients by any means available, documentation of how we determined a woman’s danger of death or serious risks, the need for consultations or opinions of medical ethics committees, attempts at alternative treatments and determination of a woman’s risk to support a particular method of termination. These are all incredibly cumbersome and time consuming.”

Several people raised concerns that the documentation could delay care in an emergency situation.

“A cesarean hysterectomy can lead to five liters of blood loss in three minutes,” said Dr. Joseph Valenti, an OB/GYN who serves on the Texas Medical Association’s Board of Trustees. “We don’t want to be documenting while we’re having blood loss or a baby is dropping heart tones.”

Zaafran said it wasn’t the board’s intent to require a doctor to document all of these things, or to document anything before acting in an emergency situation. He said the board would work to clarify that language.

Several speakers criticized the aspect of the guidance that tells doctors to document whether there was time to transfer a patient to another facility to avoid terminating the pregnancy. This provision sparked alarm among doctors and lawyers who felt it was adding an additional requirement that wasn’t in the law.

“The requirement to determine when there was an adequate time to transfer the patient by any means available is so vague as to be unworkable,” testified Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Physicians need guidance on when they can provide abortions, not more reasons why they shouldn’t.”

Duane said the board had an important role to play, and while some aspects of the guidance were useful, others were “very confusing and will inevitably chill physicians’ reliance on the medical exemption.”

Dr. Ingrid Skopp, a leading anti-abortion OB/GYN based in San Antonio, testified that she has seen firsthand what happens when doctors hesitate to act. Last week, she said, she treated a woman in the emergency room who was hemorrhaging from a miscarriage that had been diagnosed two weeks earlier. Her doctor required her to have a follow-up ultrasound before he would surgically remove the fetal tissue, she said.

“He could have intervened and spared the woman the emotionally and physically traumatic experience that she had in my emergency room,” Skopp testified. “Stories like this abound in Texas not because of the laws but because of the failure of hospitals and medical industry organizations to provide guidance to physicians.”

Skopp said her fellow doctors’ fears were “irrational,” but called on the medical board to clearly reassure them that they can rely on their reasonable medical judgment to decide when to perform an abortion.

But with a potential for up to life in prison, a $100,000 fine and the loss of medical license for performing a prohibited abortion, some doctors testified that their fears are anything but irrational.

“These decisions should be made by a patient in consultation with their physicians, because that is the practice of medicine,” Ivey testified. “We as physicians want to work within the confines of the law, but we cannot do so if our hands are tied.”

Weighing imminence

In addition to Harrison, several women who say they were denied medically necessary abortions testified at the hearing. Kate Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas mom who sued to terminate her pregnancy after a lethal fetal anomaly diagnosis, testified that this guidance would not have helped her doctors, who agreed that she needed an abortion.

“We should not force pregnant Texans to get sicker or to wait for an inevitable miscarriage and go through childbirth to deliver a baby that has died or will certainly die,” Cox testified. “It is medically reasonable to give mothers and families the best chance at building their families which may include terminating a non-viable pregnancy so they can have a chance at a viable one. I needed that chance.”

The Texas Supreme Court ruled that Cox did not qualify for an abortion, even as it clarified in that ruling that a medical emergency need not be imminent to justify performing the procedure. Several groups, including the anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life, called on the board to add this language to the guidance, which Zaafran said they would consider.

Zaafran said while it was clear doctors could act if there was an emergency situation, when “there’s a little bit more time to make a methodical judgment as to what should be done,” it might require a doctor to take the additional steps listed in the guidance.

“Let me clarify here that this is not just like any other typical medical procedure,” he said. “We’re talking about termination of a life here, and whether it is okay to do that.”

The board is considering testimony and written comments ahead of its June meeting, and will either put forward the existing guidance for a vote, or start the public comment process over again with revised guidance.

Disclosure: Texas Medical Association has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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HOUSTON – Austin Energy crews were up early Monday morning working to restore power in Houston after recent severe weather.

It’s a tough job with a lot of challenges, according to team supervisor Landry Bertsch.

“Traffic’s bad. The weather is hot. It’s humid. There are mosquitoes. We’re running into a lot of property line work. A lot of damaging wind came through here and tore up the system pretty bad,” said Bertsch.

The Austin Energy crews are currently assigned to the Katy area. The focus is on repairing what’s described as the backbone of the local power grid, which is supplied by CenterPoint Energy.

“The customers are eager to get their lights on. They’ve been out of power now for a few days, and they’re getting, they’re getting kind of antsy,” said Bertsch.

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The storm hit the Houston area Thursday with 100 mph winds.

“It blew through here, something scary, very scary. Like in my adult life, it’s about as scared as I’ve been,” said Houston resident Jose Flores.

Flores took a break from clearing the damage at his house to thank the utility crew working down the street.

“I’m grateful for all the help. I know that sometimes, you see, you know, disasters like this and other municipalities come in. Oh, no. Greatly appreciate you. Love you guys. Thank you,” said Flores.

It is a slow and methodical process, according to Paul Vasquez, director of Electric System Field Ops with Austin Energy. Twenty-one line workers rolled out of Austin early Saturday as part of a mutual aid deployment. By that afternoon, they were already restoring power.

“The first day, that partial day, they were able to restore 700 customers. The second day there were 1,500 customers. And then, I spoke with the employee in charge over there, and he told me that they’re starting to get on some of the bigger project work,” said Vasquez.

The Austin Energy team is assigned to work only during daylight hours.

“So CenterPoint has their staff working 24 hours around the clock. They’re more familiar with it. So at night, they know where to go, what to patrol. And then what they find is our crews will come in the morning, and they’ll work during the daylight hours, and they’ll work from sunup to sundown,” said Vasquez.

The team is prepared to be in Houston for the remainder of the week.

“The mood with Austin Energy guys is incredible. Everybody’s eager. Everybody wants to help. Everybody’s excited. They’re glad they’re here,” said Bertsch.

Ilana Glazer is so excited to do nothing. It’s T-minus 48 hours to the theatrical premiere of Babes, the millennial mom comedy starring Glazer and Michelle Buteau, and the comedian’s promotional calendar is predictably packed. Think of the busiest day you’ve ever had in your work life, and then triple it — that’s how much Glazer’s life currently resembles a compression packing cube. 

“Don’t tell my agents, but I want to Clear. My. Schedule,” Glazer, 37, tells Rolling Stone about what she’ll do (or won’t do) after this press blitz for Babes, which also stars Hasan Minaj, John Carroll Lynch, Stephan James, and Oliver Platt. “I want to get lunches with friends. I want to have a spa day. I want to have dates with my husband. I want to go to the museum. I want to smell my child’s scalp and her feet. I want to pick her up from school. I want to get high, put sunglasses on, and just get lost in Prospect Park.”

That everyone would want a piece of Glazer right now is understandable. Since its premiere at SXSW 2024, Babes, co-written by Glazer (who also produced) and Josh Rabinowitz (Ramy) and directed by Pamela Adlon (Better Things), has been raking in accolades for its absurdist, truthful, and sincere look at pregnancy, motherhood, and ride-or-die best friendship.

Before she can Homer Simpson-into-the-bush, however, Glazer has a flurry of press appointments to make. Currently, she’s seated in the back of a car, zooming through New York. The first time we meet, however, Glazer is mid-glam in her room at the London West Hollywood — the type of establishment where you need a special key card to even ascend beyond the lobby. “I keep saying I’m being shuffled around like Norman Lear,” Glazer cracks as a hairstylist straightens her trademark tight curls into a sleek bob. As we make small talk about New York versus Los Angeles (“The desert makes me nervous,” Glazer, who was born in Long Island and lives in Brooklyn, says firmly), a makeup artist draws on lip liner and nail techs tackle her hands and feet.

This would be an unusual routine for her character in Babes, where Glazer plays Eden, a free-spirited Queens yoga instructor who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand. Beside her is Buteau as Dawn, a married dentist, Eden’s childhood best friend, and mother of two who promises to help shepherd her bestie through pregnancy’s horny highs and lonely lows —  possibly at the expense of everyone’s time and sanity. The end result is a funny yet brutally honest look at what no one ever tells you about pregnancy and parenting, and how even the closest friendships are bound to fluctuate amid all of these changes.

“I love that it digs into the unsexy realities of pregnancy and parenthood,” Adlon tells Rolling Stone. “It’s so rare to see that portrayed honestly on the screen. The comedy was there, and I knew I could tap into the emotional honesty. It’s essential for women to laugh at what is uniquely and privately theirs and portray it authentically.”

As Glazer tells it, Babes began to take form when executive producer and manager Susie Fox noticed “a gaping hole for good-ass studio comedies.” Fox envisioned Glazer, who had recently wrapped her 2010s-defining Comedy Central series Broad City, potentially filling that gap. “With my insatiable desire to be loved, I said, ‘I see that as well. I bet I could do that for you,’” Glazer says. 

As Fox laid out the broad strokes of her idea for a pregnancy buddy comedy, Glazer says she revealed her own real-life pregnancy to Fox — Glazer and her husband, David Rooklin, welcomed a daughter in July 2021 — and found out that Rabinowitz and his wife were also expecting. “We put together a list of the most surprising and absurd experiences we were having becoming parents and as new parents,” she says. 

True enough, Babes showcases birth-ready cervixes (“Your vagina looks like it’s yawning,” Eden tells an in-labor Dawn early in the film), pregnancy-induced horniness, placenta-birthing, and the medieval-seeming nature of prenatal medical procedures, like an amniocentesis. 

By the same token, not all of Glazer and Rabinowitz’s list items were physical. “The thread that continued to come up for us was how your friendships change,” Glazer says. “We’d all been on the other side when our friends chose to have kids, and then we watched those friends turn into zombies and eventually return to human form… Josh and I were so naive to the loss when you gain a beautiful child in your life. It’s scary, the shift of your friendships.”

If anyone can claim expertise in non-romantic companionships, it’s Glazer. From 2014 to 2019, the comedian co-produced and starred in Broad City, a coming-of-age sitcom that captured the wacky and often-humiliating experiences of two twenty-something best friends (Glazer and real-life pal Abbi Jacobson) living in New York. Based on Glazer and Jacobson’s independent web series of the same name, Broad City tended to draw comparisons to HBO’s Girls. But where Girls was cringely provocative and satirical about over-educated, under-employed millennials, Broad City was slapstick, surrealist, and unpretentious. A typical season would escalate young-adult minutia — psychedelic trips to Whole Foods, debating whether to peg your crush — into a farcical comedy of errors.

For all of its situational ridiculousness, the friendship between Glazer and Jacobson was the beating heart of Broad City. Babes follows suit by honing in on the bond between Glazer and Buteau, who have been friends since meeting in the New York comedy scene in the late 2000s. Casting Buteau took a few tries at first — Glazer says she received three or four “no”s before they finally got her on board. “We were looking at these lists of actresses who would guarantee a box office [draw] — women who I so admired,” Glazer says. “But seeing these lists of women reminds me of Mitt Romney’s ‘binders full of women.’ Just a complete flattening of women into a monolith. I found the process so un-sexy. I truly woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, like ‘Michelle. Michelle. Michelle. It’s Michelle.’” 

At the time, Buteau was busy filming the first season of Netflix’s Survival of the Thickest. “She passed, and then I called her again, and she passed, and then I called her manager, and she passed,” Glazer says. “But the vision was so clear: to portray a friendship from the inside out with two real-ass women was such an important opportunity that once I got Michelle and her manager to see this vision, they couldn’t unsee it. Thank God.” 

“What drew me to Josh and Ilana’s script was the raw honesty,” Buteau tells Rolling Stone. “The emotions that you go through, the emotions that you can’t put a name on or have vocabulary for. But also, I just laughed.”

The “real-ass women” trifecta was completed after Glazer secured Pamela Adlon to direct what would be her debut feature-length film. “The script had a lot of elements that I love,” Adlon tells Rolling Stone. “It’s a rom-com — a bromance, if you will — but the relationship is two lifelong female friends whose lives are hitting the inevitable fork in the road.”

Glazer didn’t know Adlon before Babes, but she admired how honest Better Things could be about older motherhood. “She has this classic rockstar energy that was so spontaneous and colorful,” Glazer says. “She’s a real champion of actors. If I felt stuck, or was struggling, she would help erase everything that I was holding. She would break off a piece of herself to give to me and take into that scene.”

Understandably, pregnancy and motherhood have been top of mind for Glazer ever since she became a parent. That same year, she co-wrote and starred in the Hulu horror film False Positive, a Rosemary’s Baby-esque story about a young woman (Glazer) who struggles to conceive and seeks help from a fertility doctor played by Pierce Brosnan. “False Positive embodied my fears of becoming a parent,” Glazer says. “It also embodied my fears of the vulnerable experience of entering the misogynist medical system when you are a pregnant person. It’s dehumanizing — our healthcare system in this country.” 

However frightened Glazer was about carrying a child and being a parent, she is actively embracing this latest life stage, which she says has “given me new colors to see and sounds to hear… False Positive to Babes definitely illustrates this growth.”

In an age of Millennial mom anxiety and dread, Glazer doesn’t claim to be chasing the zeitgeist. “I think reality is the funniest place to write from,” Glazer says. “Comedy is the tension between joy and suffering. It’s the point where light becomes dark. That’s where the funny thing is.”