2023-12-09 08:48:00
The Supreme Court of Texas, a particularly conservative American state, decided on Friday December 8 to suspend a court decision authorizing a woman with a very risky pregnancy to benefit from an emergency abortion. “Without regard to the merits, the Court administratively suspends the decision of the district court” which allowed Kate Cox, 31, to have an abortion, described the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) which represents Ms. Cox in court.
Attorney General Ken Paxton had appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to suspend the decision rendered Thursday, authorizing Kate Cox to terminate her pregnancy, which threatened her fertility and her life – a rare decision in this state which prohibits abortion except in very rare cases exceptions, one of the strictest laws in this area in the United States.
The CRR released a copy of the court decision. The body indicated that Ms Cox’s application would remain before the Court for consideration. “While we remain hopeful that the Court will ultimately reject the State’s request and that it will do so quickly,” said Molly Duane, CRR’s lead attorney, who fears that the postponed court decision will be synonymous with refusal. “This is urgent medical care. Kate is already 20 weeks pregnant. This is why people should not beg (for) medical treatment in court,” she said.
The fetus affected by trisomy 18
“Texas law prohibits voluntary abortions,” emphasized Attorney General Ken Paxton, affirming that the judge had “abused her power” without “any evidence” while “the Texas medical expert considered that Ms. Cox did not fulfill not the necessary conditions to benefit from the medical exception. In his petition, Ken Paxton, an ultraconservative Republican, called on the Texas Supreme Court to “suspend” this decision.
Kate Cox had confirmation last week that her fetus had trisomy 18, a chromosomal anomaly associated with serious malformations. During the emergency hearing Thursday, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted her the opportunity to have an abortion.
An “activist” judge, according to the attorney general
In a press release, accompanied by a letter addressed to Texan hospitals, Ken Paxton had already warned Thursday against “the potential long-term implications” if these establishments authorized abortion. Calling the judge “activist”, he said that her decision in favor of the plaintiff would not protect these hospitals, “nor any other person, from being held civilly and criminally liable for violations of Texas laws on abortion.”
In the summer of 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned its “Roe v. Wade”, which had guaranteed for half a century the federal right of American women to terminate their pregnancies. Since then, around twenty states have banned abortion or severely restricted it, such as Texas, which only authorizes abortions in cases of danger of death or risk of serious disability for the mother.
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