Texas judge to consider pregnant woman's request for order allowing her to have an abortion
Austin, Texas — Texas' strict abortion ban will be put to an unprecedented test Thursday when a judge considers a request for an emergency injunction that would allow a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis to obtain an abortion in the state.
The lawsuit filed by Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, is believed to be the first of its kind in the country since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, the Center said. for reproductive rights, which Cox represents.
Since that landmark ruling, Texas and twelve other states have banned abortion at nearly all stages of pregnancy. Opponents have tried to weaken these bans — including an ongoing Texas challenge over whether the state law is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications — but so far no woman has gone to court to seek approval for an immediate abortion.
“I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy, nor continue to expose my body or my mental health to the risks of continuing this pregnancy,” Cox wrote in an editorial published in The Dallas Morning News. “I don't want my baby to come into this world just to see her suffer.”
Although Texas allows exceptions to the ban, doctors and women have argued that the requirements are worded so vaguely that doctors still don't want to take the risk of performing abortions for fear of facing possible criminal charges or lawsuits.
The lawsuit was filed against the Texas attorney general's office, which has defended the ban in court, and the state's medical board. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Cox is 20 weeks pregnant and doctors have told her her baby will likely be stillborn or live for at most a week, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin. The lawsuit says doctors told her their “hands are tied” under Texas' abortion ban.
The lawsuit was filed a week after the Texas Supreme Court heard arguments about whether the ban is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications. The case is one of the largest ongoing challenges to the U.S. abortion ban, though a ruling from the all-Republican court may not be available for months.
Cox, a mother of two, had a caesarean section during her previous pregnancies. She learned she was pregnant for the third time in August and was told weeks later that her baby was at high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high chance of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates. according to the lawsuit.
Doctors told Cox that if the baby's heartbeat stopped, inducing labor would put her at risk of uterine rupture due to her previous cesarean sections, and that another cesarean section at full-term would affect her ability to carry another child would endanger.
In July, several Texas women gave emotional testimonies about carrying babies they knew would not survive and about doctors being unable to provide abortions despite their increasingly dire circumstances. A judge later ruled that Texas' ban was too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications, but that decision was quickly put on hold after the state appealed.
More than 40 women in Texas have had abortions since the ban took effect, according to state health figures. None have resulted in criminal charges. There were more than 16,000 abortions in Texas in the five months before the ban went into effect last year.