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Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two, sought an abortion when she learned that her baby had a terminal illness and that carrying the pregnancy to term would be impossible. jeopardizing its future construction. This case is the first time that a pregnant woman has asked the court for permission to terminate her pregnancy under the abortion ban. baby since now. Roe v. Wade decided in 1973.
Cox’s lawsuit is widely seen as a springboard for other abortion lawsuits across the country. Advocacy groups have tried a number of different ways to repeal or temporarily suspend the ban, in whole or in part, since the Supreme Court overturned it. Roe v. Wade in June 2022. More recently, most cases have focused on women directly affected by the laws, rather than abortion clinics or doctors.
Although the Texas Supreme Court ruled in Cox’s favor, the Center for Reproductive Rights said Cox could no longer wait for abortion care.
“This past week of legal limbo has been devastating for Kate,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization representing Cox in the case. “His health is on the line. He’s been in and out of emergency rooms and can’t wait any longer.”
Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, an elected Democrat, on Thursday issued a temporary injunction barring Cox from performing abortions under narrow exceptions to the state ban. , which allows abortion in medical emergencies. But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked the Texas Supreme Court to intervene to prevent Cox from having an abortion.
Paxton in a letter Thursday threatened to file a lawsuit if Cox performed the procedure in the state, warning doctors and hospitals that anyone involved in performing an abortion for Cox is will face “civil and criminal charges … including criminal charges in the first instance.” He argued that Cox’s doctor did not meet “everything necessary to fall within an exception to the Texas abortion laws” and that the judge was “not medically competent to make this decision.”
This issue was the focus of the country after Cox described in an op-ed to the Dallas Morning News how she made the decision to seek an abortion after learning that her baby had Trisomy 18. Almost all of her pregnancies end in miscarriage or stillbirth, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Babies who survive often die early.
“I never thought I would be in the position I am now. “Twenty weeks pregnant with a non-viable baby and potentially endangering my health and a future pregnancy,” Cox wrote.
He also explained why he sought legal approval in Texas for the practice.
“I’m a Texan. Why should I or any other woman drive or fly hundreds of miles to do what we feel is best for ourselves and our families, to determine our own futures?” Cox said.
Cox went to the emergency room at least three times during her pregnancy, according to the complaint, experiencing “extreme pain, shortness of breath, and uncontrollable bleeding.” know.” Cox has previously had a Caesarean section, and may need a third if she carries this pregnancy to term, according to the complaint — a move that doctors say could affect her ability to conceive. many children in the future.
Doctors and hospitals across the country watched closely as Cox’s legal battle unfolded. In his letter on Thursday, Paxton issued the clearest and most credible threat yet to hospitals and doctors following the US Supreme Court decision. While doctors are afraid of what might happen if they perform an abortion after it has been declared illegal, no doctor has been prosecuted under the new abortion ban.
“This is the most direct conflict we’ve seen,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who specializes in the politics of reproduction, before the decision of the Supreme Court of Texas. “There was a willingness to prosecute people in the pro-abortion social media, not doctors.”
Maybe it’s because doctors and hospitals are a bit too complicated, he added. Although many people have helped distribute illegal abortion pills since then Roe has been repealed, it seems that doctors are not performing abortions in states with bans.
In Texas, a doctor who performs an abortion can be sentenced to prison.
Days after Cox filed her lawsuit, a second pregnant woman filed a lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s abortion ban. The class-action lawsuit, filed Friday, could have broad implications for abortion across the state. Instead of appealing for just her own abortion, the unknowingly pregnant woman is trying to get rid of the ban altogether.
The Texas Attorney General’s office appeared determined to stop Cox’s case from becoming a template for future lawsuits around the country, Ziegler said.
Cox’s suit is unrelated to another statewide case, Zurawski v. State of Texaswhich is a group of women who have experienced pregnancy problems charged the state in its ban on abortion. The women say the state law denied them proper health care and put their lives at risk.
The Texas Supreme Court held a hearing last month.
Pradnya Joshi contributed to this report.