According to her counsel, a pregnant woman whose fetus had a deadly illness left Texas to get an abortion. The announcement was made after 31-year-old mother of two Kate Cox lost her case before the Texas Supreme Court, following a nearly week-long court battle to obtain an abortion.
“Kate Cox has been forced to leave Texas to get healthcare outside of the state after a week of legal whiplash and threats of persecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,” a statement from Cox’s legal representation organization, the Center for Reproductive Rights, said.
“Kate has been unable to get an abortion in Texas, even though her fetus has a fatal condition and continuing the pregnancy threatens her future fertility,” the group stated.
Trisomy 18 is a disorder when a baby has an extra copy of chromosome 18, and it affects Cox’s baby. The prognosis carries a low survival probability and a very high risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.
Cox claimed in her case, citing medical professionals, that carrying out the pregnancy would endanger her health and her capacity to have further children.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, trisomy 18 affects about 1 in 2,500 diagnosed pregnancies. According to a court petition that the two groups made, around 70% of pregnancies involving the diagnosis that continue into 12 weeks gestational age result in no live birth.
The Texas abortion ban is being contested as oral arguments start.
The few exceptions to Texas’s abortion law are granted when the mother’s life is in jeopardy, but not for fetal malformations. Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton contended that Cox had not demonstrated that any of the pregnancy’s concerns were serious enough to endanger her life.
Where Cox went to have the surgery done has not been made public by the Center for Reproductive Rights. She would have been 20 weeks and 6 days pregnant on Monday.
The state Supreme Court’s verdict against Cox was made just hours after her attorneys made the announcement that she had fled Texas. It happened three days after a lower court’s decision to grant Cox permission to have an abortion was temporarily overturned by the court.
There’s no denying that Ms. Cox’s pregnancy has been incredibly difficult. The trisomy 18 diagnosis of an unborn child would be devastating for any parents, the court wrote. “Some difficulties in pregnancy, however, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses.”
Pro-choice demonstrators are outside holding signs, one of which reads, “Keep Abortion Legal”.
Proponents of abortion rights take part in nationwide protests in Houston, Texas, on May 14, 2022, in response to the Supreme Court’s leaked conclusion that raises the prospect of overturning the Roe v. Wade ruling. (Callaghan O’Hare/REUTERS)
After Roe v. Wade was overruled last year, Cox, a resident of the Dallas region, was thought to be the first woman in the United States to request permission from a court to have an abortion.
Paxton put up a strong defense in Texas in an effort to stop Cox from getting an abortion. He threatened three Houston hospitals with criminal and civil lawsuits if they let Cox’s doctor to perform the surgery. In addition, he pointed out that Cox had been discharged from the hospital following several ER trips, which did not prove that her life was in immediate danger.
During her first two pregnancies, Cox underwent cesarean sections. Her lawsuit claimed that because of her previous C-sections, she would be at risk of uterine rupture during an induction of labor, and that having another one at full term would jeopardize her capacity to carry another child. Paxton, however, argued those justifications were insufficient.
Paxton’s office sent a petition to the court over the weekend that stated, “Rather, the only question is whether Ms. Cox’s condition meets the exception, regardless of how long the child is expected to live.”
