Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally on the Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas, May 14, 2022.
Eric Gay/AP
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Eric Gay/AP
Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally on the Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas, May 14, 2022.
Eric Gay/AP
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday evening placed on maintain a choose’s ruling that authorized an abortion for a pregnant woman whose fetus has a deadly prognosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented problem to one of the restrictive bans within the U.S.
The order by the all-Republican courtroom got here greater than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mom of two from the Dallas space, received a temporary restraining order from a lower court judge that prevents Texas from enforcing the state’s ban in her case.
In a one-page order, the courtroom mentioned it was briefly staying Thursday’s ruling “without regard to the merits.” The case remains to be pending.
“While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state’s request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” mentioned Molly Duane, an lawyer on the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.
Cox’s attorneys have mentioned they won’t share her abortion plans, citing issues for her security. In a submitting with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, her attorneys indicated she was nonetheless pregnant.
Cox was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she filed what’s believed to be the primary lawsuit of its sort because the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling final 12 months that overturned Roe v. Wade. The order issued Thursday solely utilized to Cox and no different pregnant Texas ladies.
Cox discovered she was pregnant for a 3rd time in August and was advised weeks later that her child was at a excessive threat for a situation often known as trisomy 18, which has a really excessive chance of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival charges, in accordance to her lawsuit.
Furthermore, medical doctors have advised Cox that if the child’s heartbeat had been to cease, inducing labor would carry a threat of a uterine rupture due to her two prior cesareans sections, and that one other C-section at full time period would would endanger her means to carry one other youngster.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox doesn’t meet the factors for a medical exception to the state’s abortion ban, and he urged the state’s highest courtroom to act swiftly.
“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 workplace advised the courtroom.
He additionally warned three hospitals in Houston that they may face authorized penalties in the event that they allowed Cox’s doctor to present the abortion, regardless of the ruling from state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton known as an “activist” choose.
On Friday, a pregnant Kentucky woman additionally filed a lawsuit demanding the fitting to an abortion. The plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and she or he desires to have an abortion in Kentucky however can’t legally accomplish that due to the state’s ban, the swimsuit mentioned.
Unlike Cox’s lawsuit, the Kentucky problem seeks class-action standing to embrace different Kentuckians who’re or will turn into pregnant and need to have an abortion.