Dallas resident Kate Cox decided to head to another state to end the life of her baby who, at 20 weeks, received a prenatal diagnosis of trisomy 18. But Texas Right to Life argues the real target of her lawsuit against Texas officials is the state’s abortion law that protects unborn babies and their mothers.
Cox, 31, backed by the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights, changed course after the state Supreme Court blocked a December 7 ruling by Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that would have temporarily allowed her to obtain an abortion in Texas.
The abortion group also brought its lawsuit on behalf of Dr. Damla Karsan. Texas Right to Life reported doctors expected that the baby’s chromosomal disorder could require a C-section or induction, which could place Cox at risk for possible future infertility.
But the Texas pro-life organization says the Center for Reproductive Rights is seeking “to conflate two separate issues — the child’s disability and the risk to the mother — in order to use the lawsuit as a gateway to allow babies to be aborted for any reason, not just when the mother’s life is threatened.”
“Ms. Cox’s story is heartbreaking because all of us recognize that she and her child are equally valuable and loved by God,” said Texas Right to Life Director of Media and Communication Kimberlyn Schwartz:
If you feel compassion for this situation like us, it is because we all know that there are two lives at stake and that both are supremely important. The answer is not to end the child’s life because of the baby’s disability, but state law does anticipate the serious risk to the mother.
Abortions are permitted in Texas when the mother’s life is in jeopardy or her pregnancy would cause her to face a serious injury.
Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, however, observed in his letter to three Houston hospitals “it appears that Dr. Karsan failed to follow your hospital’s procedures for determining whether Ms. Cox qualifies for the medical exception to Texas’ abortion laws.”
Paxton continued:
It appears she has not sought a second opinion from a colleague at your hospital to determine whether they agree with her that Ms. Cox qualifies for the medical exception. Nothing in the TRO compels you to waive your hospital’s long-standing policies for determining whether a patient, including Ms. Cox, qualifies for the medical exception to Texas’ abortion laws.
The Travis County District judge’s temporary restraining order (TRO) and the allegations in the lawsuit, Paxton added, “fail to establish that Ms. Cox qualifies for the medical exception to Texas’ abortion laws.”
“To fall within the medical exception,” Paxton noted,
the physician must determine “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment, the pregnant female on whom the abortion is performed, induced, or attempted has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places the female at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.”
While the TRO says Dr. Karsan “believes in good faith” that “abortion is medically recommended” for Cox, Paxton asserted that “that is not the legal standard – reasonable medical judgment and a life-threatening physical condition are.”
The attorney general argued the TRO also never named Cox’s “life-threatening medical condition” that supposedly was caused by her pregnancy.
“Either Cox qualifies for a medically necessary abortion, in which case her doctor can consult with other physicians at the hospital, or she does not,” said Texas Right to Life. “Medical experts told the court she does not. The group’s lawsuit is intended to increase abortions beyond the scope of current law.”
National pro-life leader Abby Johnson, foundress of And Then There Were None, said in a comment to CatholicVote that continued pressure from the abortion lobby to terminate babies with prenatal diagnoses of illness or disability comes down to its commitment to eugenics.
“All humans are made in God’s image; each is unrepeatable and unique,” Johnson said. “We all have inherent dignity because of this. Deciding a human being is worth less because they have a disability or have a terminal illness is eugenics by nature.”
The pro-life leader, whose organization has helped abortion workers leave that industry, said “there are no perfect human beings.”
“We are all valuable and it is incomprehensible a mother is fighting to end the life of her unborn baby because of a terminal illness,” she added. “It is more humane that this baby should be delivered and live her short life in the arms of those who love her instead of being torn apart by an abortion doctor in a cold, inhumane environment.”
“We shouldn’t get to play God and discard humans that He created,” Johnson said.
The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) stresses that both “pregnant women and their preborn children deserve the highest quality of health care, especially when faced with tragic diagnoses and health challenges like Ms. Cox and her child.”
The pro-life doctors told CatholicVote that while they cannot address the specifics of Cox’s case without her medical records, they “do know that life-affirming medicine does allow women to obtain treatment for pregnancy complications, as does the Texas law.”
“However, a fetal diagnosis of Trisomy 18, in and of itself, is not a threat to the mother’s life,” AAPLOG explained. “With properly informed consent and a healthcare team that’s committed to honoring the dignity and value of both mom and baby, mothers can receive quality care in Texas, and their babies can be given a chance at life.”
“Notably, laws protecting the preborn exist in part to affirm the dignity of fetal human beings with life-limiting conditions rather than ending a preborn child’s life prematurely simply because it is predicted to be shorter than most people’s,” the pro-life OB/GYNs added, observing the “more life-affirming” choice of “perinatal palliative care, in which parents can be supported by medical staff and grief counselors as they care for their child, regardless of the length of his or her life.”
“Perinatal palliative care has been shown to yield better mental health outcomes for grieving parents, and respects the value of both mom and baby, unlike induced abortion,” AAPLOG says. “That’s the kind of dignified care that our patients deserve.”
