Texas Supreme Court rules against woman who left state to have abortion
Kate Cox, a Dallas-area woman who petitioned a judge to get an abortion in Texas, has left the state for abortion care after a week of legal whiplash.
The Texas Supreme Court late Friday night temporarily blocked a lower-court ruling that would have allowed Cox to get an abortion under the state’s near-total abortion ban, and later on Monday night, reversed the lower court’s decision.
Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two, had sought an abortion after learning that her fetus had a fatal genetic condition and that carrying the pregnancy to term could jeopardize her future fertility. The case is the first instance of an adult pregnant woman asking a court for permission to terminate her pregnancy under an abortion ban since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
Cox’s lawsuit had been widely viewed as a test case for other abortion litigation across the country. Advocacy groups have tried a variety of different approaches to overturn or temporarily block the bans, in full or in part, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022. Most recently, several cases have centered on the women directly affected by the laws, instead of abortion clinics or doctors.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization representing Cox in the case, said earlier on Monday that she couldn’t wait any longer for abortion care.
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of emergency rooms, and she couldn’t wait any longer.”
Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, an elected Democrat, granted a temporary restraining order on Thursday to allow Cox to have an abortion under the narrow exceptions to the state’s ban, which allows abortions in medical emergencies. But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked the Supreme Court of Texas to intervene to block Cox from obtaining an abortion.
Separately, Paxton in a letter on Thursday threatened to take legal action if Cox had the procedure in the state, warning doctors and hospitals that anyone involved in performing an abortion for Cox would face “civil and criminal liability” that could include “first-degree felony prosecutions.” He contended that Cox’s case did not meet “all of the elements necessary to fall within an exception to Texas’ abortion laws” and that the judge was “not medically qualified to make this determination.”
The case drew national attention after Cox described in an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News how she came to the decision to seek an abortion after learning that her fetus had Trisomy 18. Almost all such pregnancies end in miscarriage or stillbirth, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Babies who do survive often die prematurely.