Kate Cox, in a file photo.AP
Kate Cox, the 31-year-old woman who sued Texas over an abortion, has left the state to terminate her pregnancy. The news, confirmed by her lawyers, comes three days after the local Supreme Court temporarily lifted a precautionary measure issued by a lower court that allowed her to go through with the procedure. Cox, 20 weeks and six days pregnant, is at the center of a legal battle that pits her against the near-total veto exercised by Texas authorities following the overturn of Roe v. Wade ruling against abortion. Many believe this to be the first case in which a woman has sought permission to terminate a pregnancy in court.
“The legal limbo of the last week has been hell for Kate,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization that defended Cox in court, said Monday. The activist believes that her client's health cannot wait for the judges to decide the case. “He was in and out of the emergency room (…) That's why judges and politicians shouldn't make decisions about people who get pregnant,” he added.
Cox's doctors say the fetus has congenital malformations and that continuing the pregnancy could jeopardize her fertility in the future. The couple went to court to seek an abortion in Austin a week after receiving a pessimistic diagnosis. Doctors predicted that the baby, who suffers from trisomy 18, might live for another week after delivery. Seven out of 10 of these cases result in death, according to a report submitted to the court by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled in favor of the couple. The Togada, which espoused a progressive ideology, granted a precautionary measure on Thursday to allow Cox to undergo the procedure. The state, ruled by ultra-conservative authorities, fought hard through prosecutors to prevent abortions. Prosecutor Ken Paxton's office argues that Cox doesn't qualify for one of the exceptions to the near-total veto: that the mother's life is in danger.
Prosecutors appealed Judge Guerra Gamble's decision Thursday evening. “Every hour that the precaution is in effect is an hour that plaintiffs believe they can have an abortion,” Paxton said in the filing, which asks the local Supreme Court to expedite it. The court temporarily suspended the precautionary measure on Friday. “We fear that in this case, justice delayed is justice denied,” said Molly Duane, one of Cox's attorneys.
While Paxton appealed, he also threatened legal action against the hospitals. The prosecutor sent letters to three state centers threatening to file lawsuits against the doctors and institutions if they dared to intervene in the case. “The judgment does not protect you or anyone else from civil and criminal liability,” the prosecutor said in the document. The abortion veto, approved locally in 2022, imposes fines of up to $100,000 for anyone who assists in obtaining an abortion.
“This is the result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade: women were forced to go to court to seek urgent medical care. “Kate's case showed the world that abortion bans are dangerous and that so-called exceptions simply don't work,” Northup said.
Two medical organizations believe this case could set troubling precedents in Texas. “The climate of fear in the local medical community will certainly be exacerbated by the actions of the state, which has opposed the abortion Ms. Cox required,” said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Maternal Medicine. Both groups had asked the court to agree with Cox, who is already a mother of two children but does not want to thwart her ability to become pregnant again in the future.