Attorneys for a pregnant Texas woman said on Monday that she could not wait any longer and moved to another state. The woman was seeking court permission for an abortion in an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the country.
The news was made while Texas Supreme Court Justice Kate Cox was awaiting word on whether or not she could lawfully have an abortion due to the untimely death of her fetus. Given the poor prognosis for her unborn child, her lawyers claimed that carrying on with the pregnancy put her health and capacity to bear more children in danger.
“Her well-being is at risk. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who was Cox’s legal representative, stated, “She’s been in and out of the emergency room, and she couldn’t wait any longer.”
Where Cox went was not disclosed by the organization. She would have been 20 weeks and 6 days pregnant on Monday.
The nine Republican justices that make up the court had not specified when it would rule. The court had put on hold a lower court’s order granting Cox permission to have an abortion on Friday night.
Attorneys for Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas mother of two, claim that since becoming pregnant in August, she has visited the ER at least four times.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, Cox was reportedly the first woman in the United States to request permission from a court to have an abortion. Her lawsuit soon gained national attention as a high-profile test of the bans in Texas and twelve other GOP-controlled states that forbid abortion in almost all stages of pregnancy.
A pregnant woman in Kentucky also requested permission from a court to have an abortion a few days after Cox filed her lawsuit; a decision in that case has not yet been made.
Two American medical associations urged the Texas Supreme Court to rule in favor of Cox earlier on Monday. Since falling pregnant again in August, she has reportedly visited the ER at least four times, according to her attorneys.
The abortion ban in Texas only allows a limited exception when the mother’s life is in jeopardy; fetal abnormalities are not covered.
Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, has spent almost ten years defending the state’s severe anti-abortion laws. He claimed that Cox failed to provide evidence that the pregnancy had endangered her life.
In a document submitted to the state Supreme Court last week, Paxton’s office stated, “The Texas Legislature did not intend for courts to become revolving doors of permission slips to obtain abortions.”
As a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health and a specialist in maternal fetal medicine in Colorado, Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung stated that when fatal fetal anomalies are identified, “there’s only risk to that pregnant person and no benefit unfortunately for that innocent child.”
“Extending the pregnancy does not change the survival rate, so you are putting your body through risks without any benefit,” Zahedi-Spung stated.
According to Cox’s lawsuit filed in Austin last week, doctors informed her that her fetus has a condition known as trisomy 18, which has a very high likelihood of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates. Additionally, they warned Cox that going into labor or bringing the baby to term might make it more difficult for her to conceive.
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, trisomy 18 affects about 1 in 2,500 diagnosed pregnancies. According to a court filing that the two groups submitted, approximately 70% of pregnancies involving the diagnosis that continue past 12 weeks gestational age result in no live birth.
Rarely is the termination of pregnancies due to fetal abnormalities or other frequently fatal medical issues brought up in national abortion debates. Although current statistics on the number of U.S. terminations due to fetal abnormalities are unknown, experts estimate that this represents a small portion of all procedures.
After the state outlawed abortion, the majority of Texans are essentially without access to the procedure except during the first few weeks of pregnancy, which is frequently before the majority of women even realize they are pregnant.
The US Supreme Court declined to strike down the law on Wednesday, voting 5–4. This allows private citizens to enforce the ban and potentially win $10,000 in damages if they successfully sue someone who assisted someone in obtaining the medical procedure.
In Texas, one would need to become aware of their pregnancy very early on in the gestational cycle in order to be eligible for an abortion.
Once a doctor finds cardiac activity in an embryo, which typically occurs in the first five to six weeks of a pregnancy, the law forbids abortions. Cardiac activity, which is identified using cutting-edge technology even before a heart forms, does not imply that the pregnancy is viable.
There is a limited exception in the law for “medical emergencies,” but rape and incest are not covered.
