This type of standoff risks multiplying. An American woman with a very risky pregnancy, who demanded to be able to have an abortion in Texas where abortions are prohibited with rare exceptionshad to leave this conservative state to obtain a emergency abortion after a legal imbroglio, his lawyers announced on Monday.
“Due to Ms. Cox’s continued deterioration in health … she is now forced to seek treatment outside of Texas,” they said in a court document.
“This week of legal uncertainty has been hell for Kate,” Cox said in a statement, Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization that filed the suit on her behalf. “Her health is at stake. She made several trips to the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer.”
This case illustrates the headaches that patients and doctors have faced since the Supreme Court’s annulment of the federal guarantee of abortion in June 2022, following which several American states have restricted or even banned abortions.
“Madness”, according to the Democrats
Texan Kate Cox, 31 years old and approximately 21 weeks pregnant, recently had confirmation that her fetus had trisomy 18, a chromosomal anomaly associated with serious malformations. He risks dying in utero and even if the pregnancy goes to term, the probability that the baby will be stillborn or die a few days later is high.
According to her doctor, this pregnancy also threatens Kate Cox’s health and fertility. But she was refused an abortion due to anti-abortion laws in Texas, with her doctors telling her that her “hands were tied” according to her complaint.
The young woman, who has two children, therefore filed a complaint to be able to have an abortion in her state. A judge granted his request last week, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the state’s Supreme Court to have his decision stayed. What the high court did on Friday.
“After a week of legal rollercoaster and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox was forced to flee her home state of Texas to obtain the urgent abortion she needs to protect her health and future fertility,” said the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“This is madness,” reacted Ohio Democrat Greg Landsman on X. “People are going to die because of these extremist bans on abortion,” he warned.
The Center for Reproductive Rights would not say where Kate Cox had her abortion. She received offers of help “from Kansas to Colorado to Canada,” according to the organization.
Up to 99 years in prison for doctors
Texas prohibits all abortions, including in cases of incest or rape. The only exception: in the event of danger of death or risk of serious disability for the mother. But abortion rights advocates say the exceptions are too vague and doctors are terrified of being sued if they perform an abortion.
When the judge ruled in favor of Kate Cox, Attorney General Ken Paxton, an ultraconservative Republican, sent a letter to three hospitals, threatening them with “potential long-term implications.”
In Texas, doctors face up to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and the revocation of their medical license if they perform an abortion outside the framework defined by law. Since the repeal of the constitutional guarantee of abortion, many American women have been forced to undertake painful and expensive trips to obtain an abortion.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, this is the first time since 1973 that a pregnant woman has asked a court to be able to have an emergency abortion. On Friday, an unidentified Kentucky woman who was eight weeks pregnant and seeking an abortion launched a lawsuit challenging her state’s abortion ban.