Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that fertility risks and a fatal fetal anomaly do not qualify as life-threatening conditions that would allow a woman to get an abortion under Texas laws. The Texas Supreme Court agreed late Monday, hours after Kate Cox — who sued Texas to get an emergency abortion over a fetal anomaly — left the state to terminate her pregnancy. File Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 11 (UPI) — The Texas Supreme Court ruled Monday against a pregnant woman, who sued to get an emergency abortion over a severe fetal abnormality, hours after she left the state to terminate her pregnancy.
The court reversed a lower court’s ruling that had allowed Kate Cox, 31, to obtain an abortion under the state’s “medical emergency” exception. The state Supreme Court’s decision came down Monday after her attorneys said she had left Texas earlier that day to have the procedure.
In the seven-page ruling, the state Supreme Court found that Cox’s doctor “did not attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks that the exception requires,” which is the serious threat to the health or life of the mother.
“These laws reflect the policy choice that the legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,” the justices wrote Monday.
Cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant, filed a lawsuit last week over the state’s restrictive abortion bans after she learned that her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal defect with an extremely low survival rate.
“After a week of legal whiplash and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox has been forced to flee her home state of Texas to get the time-sensitive abortion care needed to protect her health and future fertility,” the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox, wrote Monday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
While a district judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday to allow Cox to terminate her nonviable pregnancy, Paxton quickly petitioned the state Supreme Court to halt the ruling.
By Friday evening, the court temporarily halted the lower court’s order without the ruling, which eventually came down late Monday. Paxton also sent a letter to three hospitals threatening legal action if they performed an abortion.
This is the first time a pregnant woman has gone to court to get an abortion before Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973. In Texas, it is a second-degree felony to perform the procedure. A similar case was filed in Kentucky on Friday.
“Due to the ongoing deterioration of Ms. Cox’s health condition … Ms. Cox is now forced to seek medical care outside of Texas,” Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the CRR, confirmed in a letter to the court Monday, adding that despite seeking their own resolution, Cox and her husband had planned to continue their lawsuit. “Because the issues in this case are capable of repetition yet evading review, the plaintiffs nonetheless intend to proceed with their case.”
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO for the CRR, said in a statement Monday. “Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer.”
The CRR also claimed in the lawsuit that Cox’s fertility is at risk if she continues the pregnancy.
On Sunday, Paxton told the state’s high court in a new court filing that fertility risks and a fatal fetal anomaly do not qualify as life-threatening conditions that would allow a patient to get an abortion under Texas laws.
While it has not been disclosed where Cox — who has a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old — will receive abortion care, she received offers to help terminate her pregnancy in Colorado, as well as in Canada.
“I do not want to put my body through the risks of continuing this pregnancy,” Cox said in her lawsuit. “I do not want to continue until my baby dies in my belly or I have to deliver a stillborn baby or one where life will be measured in hours or days, full of medical tubes and machinery.”
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