“I thought I would never need an abortion,” Kate Cox said in an interview last week. “I want a big family.” Shortly before, the pregnant American woman had learned that the fetus in her womb was terminally ill. Diagnosis: Trisomy 18.
Trisomy 18 is not curable. It is a genetic disease that disrupts the child’s development and causes organ malformations. Most children either die in the womb, are stillborn or die shortly after birth.
For Cox’s own safety, her doctor advised the mother of two to have an emergency abortion. But Kate Cox lives in Texas – a state with one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States. Abortions are prohibited unless the pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. “As long as the baby has a heartbeat, you basically can’t do anything in Texas,” said Kate Cox, summing up the law.
In addition, critical voices complain that the text of the law is worded vaguely. Some doctors therefore no longer carry out medically necessary abortions out of fear of being sued. Then there is the risk of losing your license to practice medicine, high fines – or even a long prison sentence of up to 99 years.
So Kate Cox, 20 weeks pregnant at the time, went to court – the first court case of a medical exemption in Texas. She wanted to protect her doctor, with whom she felt she was in good hands, and her husband, who, according to the law, could also be charged with aiding and abetting. And she wanted to have the medically recommended abortion in her community so that she could recover at home.
What followed was a short-lived victory. In the first instance, Cox was right. But just hours after the ruling, Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, intervened. Paxton appealed and went to the highest court in Texas to stop the abortion.
And he intimidated the accompanying doctor, Damla Karsan. He wrote letters to three Houston clinics where they care for patients. This was reported by the New York Times, among others. Even before the highest court made a decision, the letters contained a note that the first judge’s ruling was provisional and would not protect the doctor from prosecution.
Cox again had to wait for days, despite physical complaints. The past week was “hell” for the young mother, Nancy Northup said on Monday. Northup is president of the Center for Reproductive Health, which provides legal representation for Kate Cox and her relatives. The pregnant woman therefore left Texas before the court ruling in order to have the medically necessary procedure carried out in another state.
Cox had been to the emergency room several times because of bleeding and cramps. “Her health is at stake. She was in and out of the emergency room and couldn’t wait any longer,” Northup said. “That’s why judges and politicians shouldn’t decide on pregnant women’s health care – they’re not doctors.”
Even before the court decision itself, Cox said in an interview that she was deeply saddened. “I feel that I should not subject my body to the risks of continuing this pregnancy through labor and induction with the possibility of uterine rupture […].”
The Supreme Court in Texas has now ruled against Kate Cox. The court did not consider the explanation given by the accompanying doctor to be sufficient, it said in a statement on Monday evening. “All parents would be devastated if they found out about the diagnosis of trisomy 18 in their unborn child,” the court writes. “However, some difficulties in pregnancy, even serious ones, do not represent the increased risks to the mother that the exception covers.”
Since the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, leaving abortion rights to the individual states, legislation has been a patchwork. If pregnant women can afford it, they often leave particularly restrictive states like Texas to have an abortion elsewhere. While there were around 50,000 abortions in Texas in 2020, there were only 34 this year through September, according to official health statistics.
But a trip is not financially possible for everyone, the Center for Reproductive Health also criticizes. “Women are forced to beg in court for urgent medical care. Kate’s case has shown the world that abortion bans are dangerous for pregnant women and that exceptions don’t work,” shares Nancy Northup. “While Kate had the opportunity to leave the state, most people don’t have that opportunity and a situation like this could mean a death sentence.”
Quellen:Center for Reproductive Rights, Texas Supreme Court,Texas Health and Human Services, “New York Times”
