A woman who was denied an abortion in Texas for her unborn baby with a fetal anomaly has left the state to obtain an abortion elsewhere, her attorneys said Monday.
The Texas Supreme Court on Monday ruled against Kate Cox, 31, saying that a lower court was wrong to rule that she was entitled to a medical exception abortion.
By then, though, Cox had already left Texas.
“After a week of legal whiplash and threats of persecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Kate Cox has been forced to leave Texas to get healthcare outside of the state,” the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox, said in a statement.
Cox’s legal team had argued that the baby has a fatal fetal condition and that continuing the pregnancy threatens Cox’s future fertility.
Cox, who has two other children, was more than 20 weeks pregnant with a baby who had a condition called trisomy 18, which involves having an extra chromosome 18 and can cause abnormalities like heart defects.
About 95% of trisomy 18 pregnancies result in a miscarriage. However, some babies do survive past birth and can live into their toddler years, teen years, or even longer. A woman believed to be one of the oldest people with the condition lived to 40.
Texas law allows for abortions only when a pregnancy seriously threatens the life of the woman or carries “a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
The Supreme Court wrote in its ruling that Cox’s doctor “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the exception requires.”
Cox’s attorneys argued that she needed a dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion because going through vaginal labor would risk uterine rupture due to her two previous C-sections. Another C-section birth would make future pregnancies higher risk and potentially damage her fertility, Cox’s doctors told her, according to court documents.
Cox had also been to the emergency room several times during her pregnancy for symptoms including cramping and discharge.
“No one disputes that Ms. Cox’s pregnancy has been extremely complicated. Any parents would be devastated to learn of their unborn (fatal condition) diagnosis. Some difficulties in pregnancy, however, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses,” the Texas Supreme Court wrote in its ruling.
The court also called on the Texas Medical Board to provide further guidance on the state’s abortion ban.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, previously warned that doctors or hospitals who performed Cox’s abortion could face criminal prosecution.
The attorney general’s office argued in a court filing that Cox is only seeking the abortion because of her child’s diagnosis.
“Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” the filing stated.
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