Texas woman flees state to get abortion after Supreme Court decision
DALLAS – Kate Cox has left the state to get an abortion following a late-night decision Friday by the Texas Supreme Court that blocked her ability to terminate her nonviable pregnancy under a medical exemption.
Cox, 31, is at the center of an abortion lawsuit that has garnered national attention as the Dallas-area woman fights to get an abortion for a fatal fetal diagnosis despite Texas’ bans. Cox’s doctors advised her that carrying the pregnancy to term could be harmful to her health and future fertility, according to the case filed last week by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate. Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer,” said center President Nancy Northup according to a post on X. “This is why judges and politicians should not be making health care decisions for pregnant people.”
The abortion rights group did not say where or when Cox would have the procedure.
A Travis County judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday morning allowing Cox to receive the abortion. State Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned the Texas Supreme Court to block that decision late Thursday night. The state’s highest court temporarily halted the order, saying the justices would weigh in on the case when they had more time to consider it.
Before suing the state, Cox said she experienced severe cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks before her baby was diagnosed with full trisomy 18, a condition that makes it highly unlikely the baby will survive long after birth if it’s not stillborn. The suit alleges that Cox is at risk for severe complications because of her two prior cesarean sections and elevated vital signs.
Legal experts said the case could serve as a model for similar situations in the other 20 states where abortion is outlawed or restricted. A pregnant woman in Kentucky filed a lawsuit Friday arguing that her state’s near-total abortion ban violates her rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.
Under Texas’ abortion bans, pregnant people can only get an abortion if they have a “life-threatening physical condition,” or are at risk of “substantial impairment of a major bodily function.” The state Supreme Court is currently reviewing another case, Zurawski v. Texas, that includes 20 women who say their abortions were delayed or denied because the exemption definitions were unclear.
The Zurawski lawsuit, also brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, requests a temporary injunction that would exempt any Texan with a medically complicated pregnancy from the state’s bans, including those with fatal fetal diagnoses.
Cox now joins tens of thousands of Americans traveling out of state to obtain an abortion. Nationally, more than 92,000 patients crossed state lines for abortions in the first six months of 2023, compared to 40,600 in the first half of 2020, according to recent analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.
Abortions in Texas have fallen dramatically since the state’s bans went into effect, dropping from 50,000 in 2021 to 26 in the first six months of 2023, according to Texas Health and Human Services Commission data.
Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, bans abortion after six weeks gestation and is enforced through lawsuits from private individuals. People who help Cox obtain her abortion out-of-state could be sued under the statute, which has largely gone untested, said Carl Tobias, law professor at the University of Richmond.
The future of Cox’s lawsuit is also unclear. Tobias said it’s possible that the case could continue to move through the legal system, even after Cox receives her abortion. Cox’s lawyers informed the court that they want to proceed with the case, state Supreme Court director of public affairs Amy Starnes said in an email Monday.
“Roe was a case that wasn’t entirely different from this, and the Supreme Court kept the case alive under an exception that talks about something capable of repetition but evading review,” Tobias said. “You would never get through the whole court system before you’d have to terminate your pregnancy as a plaintiff.”
The landmark Roe v. Wade case, which was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, originated in North Texas when a woman sued then-district attorney of Dallas County Henry Wade over the right to an abortion. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor in 1973, Jane Roe, a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey, had already given birth to the child.