An American woman with a very risky pregnancy, who demanded to be able to have an abortion in Texas where abortions are prohibited with rare exceptions, had to leave this conservative state to obtain an emergency abortion, her lawyers announced on Monday.
• Read also: In France, the right to abortion acquired but obstacles persist
• Read also: Texas Supreme Court blocks emergency abortion
• Read also: Texas judge allows woman with very risky pregnancy to have an abortion
“This week of legal uncertainty has been hell for Kate,” Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, the organization that filed the suit on her behalf, said in a statement.
“Her health is at stake. She made several trips to the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer,” she added.
Texan Kate Cox, 31 years old and approximately 21 weeks pregnant, recently had confirmation that her fetus had trisomy 18, a chromosomal anomaly associated with serious malformations.
He risks dying in utero and even if the pregnancy goes to term, the probability that the baby will be stillborn or die a few days later is high.
According to her doctor, this pregnancy also threatens Ms. Cox’s health and fertility. But she was refused an abortion due to anti-abortion laws in Texas, with her doctors telling her that her “hands were tied” according to her complaint.
The young woman therefore filed a complaint to be able to have an abortion in her state. A judge granted his request last week, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the state’s Supreme Court to have her decision stayed.
That’s what the high court did Friday, blocking Ms. Cox from getting an abortion in Texas.
“After a week of legal rollercoaster and threats of prosecution from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, our client Kate Cox was forced to flee her home state of Texas to obtain the urgent abortion she needs to protect her health and future fertility,” said the Center for Reproductive Rights.
This case illustrates the headaches that patients and doctors have faced since the Supreme Court’s cancellation of the federal guarantee of abortion in June 2022, in the wake of which several American states have restricted or even banned abortions.
Since then, many American women have been forced to make arduous and expensive trips to have an abortion.
