The Texas Supreme Court overturned an emergency ruling permitting a woman to terminate her hazardous pregnancy on Monday, hours after her lawyers said she had left the state to have an abortion.
Kate Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas mother of two, is more than 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus with complete trisomy 18, a rare genetic condition that indicates the baby will most certainly die before birth or live for only a few days.
Failure to terminate the pregnancy, according to doctors, could result in a rupture of Cox’s uterus, endangering her future fertility and life. She sued Texas last week and was granted the right to an abortion by a Travis County judge.
However, the state’s Attorney General, Ken Paxton, promptly filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court. Paxton also vowed to sue any doctor who performed the abortion.
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which brought the petition on Cox’s behalf, her husband and physician.
“Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer. This is why judges and politicians should not be making healthcare decisions for pregnant people — they are not doctors.”
After Cox had left Texas, the Texas Supreme Court issued an order siding with the government and reversing the lower court’s decision.
Near total ban
In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
A Texas state “trigger” ban went into force immediately, making abortions illegal even in circumstances of rape or incest. Texas also has a provision that allows individual citizens to sue anyone who performs or assists in the performance of an abortion.
If a Texas physician is found guilty of delivering abortions, they risk up to 99 years in jail, a $100,000 fine, and the loss of their medical license.
While the law does permit abortions in circumstances where the mother’s life is in danger, physicians have stated that the wording is ambiguous and unclear in practice, leaving them vulnerable to legal consequences for exercising their medical judgment.
Despite the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling, the judges indicated that they did not believe it was a subject for the judiciary to become involved in.
“Our ruling today does not block a life-saving abortion in this very case if a physician determines that one is needed under the appropriate legal standard, using reasonable medical judgment,” they said. “If Ms. Cox’s circumstances are, or have become, those that satisfy the statutory exception, no court order is needed.”
“The Texas Medical Board, however, can do more to provide guidance in response to any confusion that currently prevails,” the order said.
However, Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the ruling did little to help women like Cox, who had been turned down by doctors when they wanted abortions for urgent medical reasons.
“This ruling should enrage every Texan to their core,” said Duane. “If Kate can’t get an abortion in Texas, who can? Kate’s case is proof that exceptions don’t work, and it’s dangerous to be pregnant in any state with an abortion ban.”
‘Death sentence’
“While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence,” Northup said.
According to the Center, Cox’s case is the first in which a woman has petitioned a court for an abortion since Roe v. Wade was ruled in 1973.
On Friday, a Kentucky woman identified as Jane Doe, who is eight weeks pregnant, filed a lawsuit challenging her state’s abortion bans.
The suit was brought on Doe’s behalf and on behalf of others in similar situations, arguing that “pregnant Kentuckians have the right to determine their own futures and make private decisions about their lives and relations.”