“I Don’t Want to Continue Until My Baby Dies in My Womb”: The Woman With a Non-viable Pregnancy Who Was Forced to Leave Texas to Have an Abortion

“It’s not a question of if I should say goodbye, but when. I don’t want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy (…). “I don’t want to continue until my baby dies in my womb or I have to give birth to a dead daughter, or someone whose life is measured in hours or days.”

With that statement, Kate Cox filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas last Tuesday to make an exception strict anti-abortion legislation and allowed her to terminate a pregnancy that doctors assured her was not viable.

She is the first woman to go to court for this purpose since the United States Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in June last year, the emblematic ruling that legalized the practice in the country.

This Supreme Court ruling paved the way for Republican-controlled states, such as Texas, to enact a near-total ban on abortion.

Cox, 31, originally from Dallas and over 20 weeks pregnantinitially won the battle.

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But not even a week passed before he lost the war.

This Monday, his lawyers reported that he had left Texas to undergo the procedure and thus the latest symbol of increasing abortion restrictions In the U.S.

The dreaded diagnosis

Her daughter was only three years old and Cox was still breastfeeding her year-and-a-half-old son when she found out she was pregnant again.

It was August and although the news came as a surprise, both she and her husband Justin Cox were happy. According to the lawsuit, having a large family was something they had always wanted.

But that happiness would soon begin to disappear.

A blood test in October told them something was wrong. An ultrasound showed a series of malformations in the fetus, including spina bifida, and the final diagnosis came with the amniocentesis result on November 28: the fetus had trisomy 18.

Also known as Edwards syndrome, it is a genetic condition in which there are three copies of chromosome 18 material instead of two and this causes severe developmental delays.

According to the lawsuit, his doctors told him that, in his case, there was virtually no chance that the baby would survive the birth or live longer than a few days.

And they added that they continued the pregnancy until the end could endanger your life or cause infertility.

“The marriage was destroyed,” the court document reads, and they chose to terminate the pregnancy.

But the shock was greater when they assured her that because of Texas’ strict regulations on this issue, as long as there was a fetal heartbeat, they would not be able to find anyone in the state who could perform an abortion on Cox.

It’s because of what’s known as ‘the law of the heartbeat’ – Texas Heartbeat Act or TX SB08 – signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May 2021, before being repealed Roe vs. Wading.

It gives any individual the right to sue doctors who perform an abortion after six weeks, a period when many women do not know they are pregnant.

Cox’s doctors were then, as they told him, “with tied hands.” They could only continue to monitor the fetus’s heart activity.

It was then that this Texan’s legal journey began to get permission to have an abortion where she lives.

The legal odyssey

“I’m trying to do what’s best for my baby and me, but the state of Texas makes us both suffer” Cox stated in a forum published in the Dallas Morning News before filing the lawsuit last Tuesday, December 5.

On Thursday, a Travis County judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, gave her permission to terminate the pregnancy.

“The idea that Ms. Cox wants to be a mother, and that this law could cause her to lose that right, is unbelievable. “Allowing it would be a failure of justice,” the lawyer considered as he issued a notice of claim Precautionary measure of 14 days for the procedure to be carried out.

The decision left Cox, who watched the court hearing with her husband on Zoom, crying. According to her lawyers, she had to go to the hospital emergency room four times that week due to pregnancy complications.

The couple was represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, a civil society organization that fights to regain women’s decision-making rights.

The temporary protection also protected his doctor Damla Karsan, a midwife from Houston who would be shielded from civil and criminal charges if she decides to have the abortion.

Anti-abortion groups quickly protested.

“All children are precious and the law should protect them no matter how short their lives,” Texas Right To Life said in a statement, adding that Cox should have opted for perinatal palliative care before ending the fetus’s life .

In addition, The Texas government, drawn from the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, moved quickly to end abortion.

Late Thursday evening, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxtonan ultraconservative Christian who, among other things, launched a crusade against abortion in the state has petitioned a higher court to overturn the decision.

“Every hour in which the precaution is in force is an hour in which the claimants feel free to perform an abortion”Paxton insisted.

The State alleged that Cox does not meet the requirements for the only exception under local law: that the mother’s life is in danger.

and also shipped letters to three Texas hospitals threatening legal action against whether any of them performed the procedure.

Given this, on Friday the The state Supreme Court paused temporary emergency abortion while the case was being considered, and on Monday, December 11, it was ruled against.

In its seven-page ruling, the state’s highest court found that Cox’s doctor had not shown that his life was threatened because of a “life-threatening physical condition,” as required by law.

“These laws reflect the policy choice the Legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,” the justices wrote.

Just a few hours earlier Cox’s attorneys had reported that the woman had left the state to seek an abortion outsidewithout indicating when or where he would do it.

A standard?

The repeal of Roe v. Wade opened a new chapter in the legal history of abortion in the US.

There are several states where doctors have filed lawsuits arguing that local bans prevent abortion, even in cases of serious pregnancy complications.

The most recent was recorded last week in Kentucky.

Cox’s is the first case in which a woman with a high-risk pregnancy goes to court to seek permission so her doctors can do what they deem medically necessary without fear of sanctions or criminal consequences.

He did it next A federal judge will rule in August that Texas law is too harsh on women whose fetuses have birth defects.

While the Texas Supreme Court was considering Cox’s case, it was also considering another legal action to clarify the limits of medical exceptions to the state’s abortion ban.

Cause –‘Zurawski vs. Texas’– concerns 20 women who say they were forced to continue their pregnancies even though their health was at risk, because the vagueness of state exemptions made doctors “extremely cautious” about when a medical condition was serious enough to grant an abortion to stand.

Experts interpret that, with Monday’s decision, Texas’ highest court proposed a standard that could apply beyond Cox’s case.

According to official statistics, the state had only registered until September 34 abortions in 2023; in the five months prior to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, it numbered 16,000.

But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been Texans who, like Cox, have sought alternatives to ending their pregnancies outside their state’s borders. (JO)