The Texas Supreme Court temporarily paused a lower court ruling which allowed one woman to get an abortion for a non-viable pregnancy.
On Thursday Kate Cox, 31, was granted a temporary restraining order from a lower court allowing her to proceed with an emergency abortion. Cox’s 20-week fetus is diagnosed with trisomy 18, a chromosomal disorder which usually results in either stillbirth or an early death of an infant.
In a late Friday ruling, the Texas Supreme Court said: “Without regard to the merits, the Court administratively stays the district court’s December 7, 2023 order.”
In her lawsuit, Cox said her doctors told her she would need to undergo a third cesarean section if she carry the non-viable fetus to term. This would put her at increased risk of “severe complications” that threaten “her life and future fertility.” Her doctors also told her that if labor is induced she could face severe complications including a uterine rupture.
After District Court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble sided with Cox to allow an abortion, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in and said Gamble’s order “will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws.”
“Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” Paxton’s office added.
Texas has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. It went into effect after the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade. It bans the procedure after 6 weeks of pregnancy unless to save the life of the pregnant person. The law also allows private citizens to sue anyone who assisted someone in obtaining an abortion.
