AFPProtestors at the Texas courthouse in October 2022
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:25
A Texas woman has moved to another state to have an abortion. 31-year-old Cate Cox had been granted permission to have an abortion by a judge last week, but the Texas Supreme Court stayed that decision because the state appealed it.
According to American media, Cox is one of the first to go to court since the national right to abortion was abolished. She already has two children and is about 20 weeks pregnant. Her unborn child has Edwards syndrome, in which an extra chromosome has been developed. Children born with the syndrome are mentally and physically disabled.
Cox’s doctors in Texas said they could not perform an abortion for fear of legal consequences. Since last year, abortion has again become a criminal offense in several American states or is only possible under stricter conditions. This is also the case in Texas. Cox tried to get a legal abortion through the courts.
Abortion in Texas is legal when the mother’s life is in danger. During the trial, the woman said she was afraid for her own health. The judge agreed to her request.
But that decision was put on hold because Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wants the Texas Supreme Court to consider the case. He states that Cox cannot prove that the pregnancy could also endanger her own life. Paxton has defended the state’s anti-abortion laws for years.
A doctor who specializes in abnormalities during pregnancies says that prolonging the pregnancy is not in the mother’s interest. “When fatal abnormalities are discovered, there is only more risk for pregnant women. You expose your body to risks without any benefit, because the child’s chance of survival does not change.”
According to the Center of Reproductive Rights, the agency assisting the woman, Cox no longer has time to wait for the court’s ruling. “Her health is at stake. She has been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer,” said a spokesperson for the Center. The agency did not say which state she traveled to.
Roe v. Wade
The Federal Supreme Court struck down the national right to abortion in June 2022. As a result, abortion legislation returned to the hands of states, which can determine for themselves how abortion legislation should be enforced.
Half a century earlier, in 1973, it was decided to establish the right to abortion nationally, as a result of the Roe versus Wade case.
A few days after Cox filed her case, a Kentucky woman also filed a lawsuit seeking a legal abortion. No decision has yet been made in that case.
2023-12-11 21:25:38
#Pregnant #woman #medical #complications #leaves #Texas #abortion
