Texas judge grants woman permission to get an abortion despite state’s ban
— A Texas judge on Thursday gave a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis permission to get an abortion in an unprecedented challenge over bans that more than a dozen states have enacted since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The lawsuit by Kate Cox, a 31-yearold mother of two from the Dallas area, is believed to be the first time since the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that a woman has asked a court to approve an immediate abortion. The order only applies to Cox and her attorneys, who warned it was unfeasible for scores of other women seeking abortions to turn to courts during their pregnancies.
“This can’t be the new normal,” said Marc Hearron, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights. “I don’t think you can expect to see now hundreds of cases being filed on behalf of patients. It’s just not realistic.”
State District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, an elected Democrat, said she would grant a temporary restraining order that would allow Cox to have an abortion under what are narrow exceptions to Texas’ ban. Her attorneys afterward said they would not disclose what Cox was planning to do next, citing concerns for her safety.
The office of Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which has argued that Cox did not meet the criteria for a medical exception, did not immediately react to the ruling but could seek an appeal.
Cox is 20 weeks pregnant, and in a brief hearing Thursday, her attorneys told Gamble that she went to emergency room this week for a fourth time during her pregnancy.
Cox and her husband both attended the hearing via Zoom but did not address the court. Doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of a uterine rupture because of her prior cesareans sections, and that another C-section at full term would endanger her ability to carry another child.
“The idea that Ms. Cox wants so desperately to be a parent and this law may have her lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox, has said this lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Since that landmark ruling, Texas and 12 other states rushed to ban abortion at nearly all stages of pregnancy.