HB 257 amends sections of the Texas Health and Safety Code related to abortion regulations, expanding exceptions to allow licensed physicians to perform abortions in certain cases. Specifically, it permits abortion if, in the physician’s best medical judgment, the procedure is medically necessary to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health, including fertility, or in cases of a lethal fetal anomaly or life-limiting diagnosis incompatible with life outside the womb. The bill also specifies that a medical review process cannot override a physician’s or patient’s decision to proceed with an abortion under these exceptions. Additionally, the bill removes criminal, civil, and administrative penalties for patients who undergo an abortion and clarifies that these provisions do not restrict political subdivisions from regulating or prohibiting abortion at least as stringently as state law. This Act would take effect on September 1, 2025, unless immediate enactment is achieved​.