Texas woman fighting for legal abortion flees the state

After a week of legal whiplash, the woman at the center of a legal fight over whether she can receive an emergency abortion in Texas has fled the state. 

A Texas district court last Thursday granted Kate Cox permission to get an abortion despite Texas’s strict ban, the first time a pregnant woman sought a court order for the procedure since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. 

But within hours, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked the state Supreme Court to block the order immediately. The court did so late Friday night and has yet to issue a final ruling. 

Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has been representing Cox, said she couldn’t wait. Cox has been to the emergency room four times during her pregnancy. 

“Kate’s case has shown the world that abortion bans are dangerous for pregnant people, and exceptions don’t work,” Northup said. “She desperately wanted to be able to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family. While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence.”    

Cox is a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area. She sought an abortion after learning her fetus had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a chromosomal anomaly that leads to miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of the infant within hours, days or weeks after birth. Carrying the pregnancy to term would likely jeopardize her future fertility, and she and her husband said they wanted more children.

Following Thursday’s ruling from District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, Paxton issued a direct threat to hospitals and physicians, saying the court’s order would not protect them from prosecution if they performed an abortion on Cox.

In Texas, a doctor who performs an abortion could be sentenced to life in prison.

Abortion rights advocates were following the case closely, as many have been searching for novel ways to challenge strict abortion bans. While previous cases involved abortion clinics or doctors suing, some newer lawsuits have come from patients themselves.

For instance, an anonymous pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit on behalf of herself as well as all Kentuckians who are pregnant or may become pregnant, seeking to end the state’s ban altogether.

The Texas Supreme Court is separately considering a case brought by a group of women who experienced severe pregnancy complications and were denied abortion care. The lawsuit isn’t trying to overturn the ban, but aims to make the state to clarify the ban’s medical exemptions so doctors can perform abortions without fear of losing their licenses or being prosecuted.

Updated at 3:35 p.m.