The Texas Supreme Court voted unanimously Monday to overturn a lower court ruling allowing a woman to have an abortion after her fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition.
The nine members of the court said that the doctor did not provide enough “proof” that to constitute a medical exemption to the state’s draconian laws aimed at eliminating abortion since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer, the New York Times said.
Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the exception requires,” the court said.
“These laws reflect the policy choice that the Legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,” the court wrote.
The woman, Kate Cox, had already left for another state to have the abortion, anticipating the court’s ruling after it temporarily blocked the lower court ruling last week.
Cox is 20 weeks pregnant, and her fetus suffers from a fatal genetic condition known as trisomy 18, which can result in miscarriage, stillbirth, or death shortly after birth. Delivering the baby also poses a risk to Cox’s health, her doctor said, and could prevent her from having children in the future, as CrimeOnline reported.
“The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be pregnant, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking, and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Maya Guerra Gamble, a state district court judge in Travis County, said during the hearing before issuing the ruling.
Karsan said in Cox’s lawsuit that forcing her to carry the pregnancy to term would put her at “particularly high risk for gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, fetal macrosomia, post-operative infections, anesthesia complications, uterine rupture, and hysterectomy, due to her two prior C-sections and underlying health conditions,” but the Supreme Court was not swayed.
After Gamble issued the temporary, 14-day restraining order — which applied only to Cox’s current pregnancy — preventing Texas from stopping the abortion, state Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote to hospitals where Karsan has privileges warning that he would prosecute them if they performed the procedure and filed suit with the higher court to stop it altogether.
Under the Texas law, a doctor can face a prison term of up to 99 years and fines of at least $100,000 for performing or facilitating an abortion.
The Supreme Court promptly stayed the lower court ruling December 7 and issued its final ruling on Monday.
“Kate desperately wanted to be able to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family,” said Nancy Northup, the chief executive for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which was representing Ms. Cox in her case, in a statement announcing that Cox had left Texas for medical care. “While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence.”
A spokeswoman for the anti-abortion group Texas Right to Life condemned Cox’s ability to travel out of state for an abortion, the Times reported.
“We mourn the decision to take Baby Cox’s life rather than give her every chance at life,” Kimberlyn Schwartz said in a statement.
Cox, who has two children and has said she would like a large family, made the decision to seek an abortion after four emergency room trips during this pregnancy.
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