The Texas Supreme Court has paused the lower court’s order allowing pregnant women to have abortions
Abortion
PAUL J. WEBERDec. 9, 2023
The Texas Supreme Court on Friday evening stayed a judge’s ruling that approved an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the US.
The all-Republican court’s order came more than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge blocking Texas from banning the is on her case.
In a one-page order, the court said Thursday’s ruling was temporarily stayed without regard to the merits.” The case is still pending.
While we still hope that the Court will ultimately deny the state’s request and do so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will also be denied, said Molly Duane, an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, that Cox represents.
Cox’s lawyers have said they will not share her abortion plans, citing concerns about her safety. In a filing with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, her lawyers indicated she was still pregnant.
Cox was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she reportedly filed the first lawsuit of its kind since last year’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Roe v.
S
. Calf. The order issued Thursday only applied to Cox,
and no not
other pregnant women from Texas.
Cox learned she was pregnant for the third time in August and was told weeks later that she was pregnant
baby fetus
was at high risk for a condition known as trisomy 18, which, according to her lawsuit, has a very high chance of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival rates.
Additionally, doctors have told Cox that if the
babies fetus
If the heartbeat were to stop, inducing labor would carry a risk of uterine rupture due to her two previous cesarean sections.
S
sections, and that another cesarean section at full term would jeopardize her ability to carry another child.
Republican Texas Att
orne
j. Gen.
eral
Ken Paxton argued that Cox does not meet the criteria for a medical exception to the state’s abortion ban, and he urged the state’s highest court to act quickly.
Future criminal and civil actions cannot restore the life lost if the plaintiffs or their agents continue to perform and obtain an abortion in violation of Texas law, Paxton’s office told the court.
He also warned three Houston hospitals that they could face legal consequences if they allowed Cox’s doctor to perform the abortion, despite the ruling by District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who
M
Paxton called an activist judge.
Also on Friday, a pregnant Kentucky woman filed a lawsuit demanding the right to an abortion. The plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and she wants to have an abortion in Kentucky but cannot do so legally because of the state’s ban, the lawsuit said.
Unlike Cox’s lawsuit, the Kentucky Challenge is seeking class-action status to include other Kentuckians who are or will become pregnant and want to have an abortion.
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.