Dec. 11 (UPI) — A Texas woman, who sued to get an emergency abortion over a severe fetal abnormality, says she will now leave the state to terminate her pregnancy.
Kate Cox, 31, who is 20 weeks pregnant, filed a lawsuit last week over the state’s restrictive abortion bans after she recently learned that her developing fetus has trisomy 18, a severe chromosomal defect with an extremely low survival rate.
“After a week of legal whiplash and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox has been forced to flee her home state of Texas to get the time-sensitive abortion care needed to protect her health and future fertility,” the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox, wrote Monday in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
While a district judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday to allow Cox to terminate her nonviable pregnancy, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly petitioned the state Supreme Court to halt the ruling.
By Friday evening, the court temporarily halted the lower court’s order without a ruling. Paxton also sent a letter to three hospitals threatening legal action if they performed an abortion.
This is the first time a pregnant woman has gone to court to get an abortion before Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973. In Texas, it is a second-degree felony to perform the procedure. A similar case was filed in Kentucky on Friday.
“Due to the ongoing deterioration of Ms. Cox’s health condition … Ms. Cox is now forced to seek medical care outside of Texas,” Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the CRR, confirmed in a letter to the court Monday adding that despite seeking their own resolution, Cox and her husband plan to continue their lawsuit. “Because the issues in this case are capable of repetition yet evading review, the plaintiffs nonetheless intend to proceed with their case.”
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO for the CRR, said in a statement Monday. “Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer.”
The CRR also claims in the lawsuit that Cox’s fertility is at risk if she continues the pregnancy.
On Sunday, Attorney General Paxton told the state’s high court in a new court filing that fertility risks and a fatal fetal anomaly do not qualify as life-threatening conditions that would allow a patient to get an abortion under Texas laws.
While it has not been disclosed where Cox — who has a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old — will receive abortion care, she has received offers to help her terminate her pregnancy in Colorado, as well as in Canada.
“I do not want to put my body through the risks of continuing this pregnancy,” Cox said in the lawsuit. “I do not want to continue until my baby dies in my belly or I have to deliver a stillborn baby or one where life will be measured in hours or days, full of medical tubes and machinery.”
