The Spiteful Assault of Texas AG Ken Paxton Against Kate Cox
Texas loon and headline-hog Attorney General Ken Paxton forced a young mother of two, Kate Cox, to flee the Lone Star State to terminate a doomed pregnancy that also threatened her health.
Doctors had informed Mrs. Cox, who was in the 20th week of pregnancy, that the fetus she was carrying was afflicted with a third 18th chromosome, a condition known as Trisomy 18, or Edwards syndrome, and would not survive. A Trisomy 18 fetus almost always dies in the womb or within hours or days of delivery.
Kate Cox was also informed by doctors that, in her case, carrying the pregnancy to term could also impair her health as well as threaten her ability to carry future pregnancies successfully. The young mother was appropriately cleared to terminate her tragically and fatally flawed pregnancy by the Texas District Court in Austin.
Not so fast, groused Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Republicans who occupy all of the Texas Supreme Court chairs. Within hours of the district court's approval of the procedure allowing Kate Cox to terminate the doomed pregnancy, Paxton, never one to miss an opportunity to make headlines at the expense of others, elbowed his way into the news cycle by threatening to criminally prosecute any doctor, hospital, or any other person or facility that participated in terminating Mrs. Cox’s doomed pregnancy.
It takes a somewhat twisted sort of hostility, if not misogyny, and a remarkable lack of prosecutorial discretion for a so-called officer of the court to visit such unnecessary stress upon an already stressed young pregnant mother who had learned that her pregnancy was doomed. But then, again, opportunities for Ken Paxton to make national news just don't materialize every day.
Trisomy 18 is a tragic disorder, but apparently not tragic enough for Attorney General Paxton or the Republican-dominated Texas Supreme Court.
Just what is a Trisomy?
Normally, we inherit 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs (one chromosome in each pair from each parent). Together, they comprise all of our DNA, the genetic instructions that determine who we are.
An extra chromosome is present in trisomies, turning a normal pair of chromosomes into an abnormal trio of chromosomes. The excess genetic material in the third chromosome invariably causes severe congenital anomalies that interfere with normal fetal development. The three most common trisomy disorders are Trisomy 13, known as Patau Syndrome; Trisomy 18, known as Edwards Syndrome; and Trisomy 21, or Down Syndrome, the most common trisomy disorder.
Paxton, upon learning of the district court’s ruling on Kate Cox’s behalf, immediately threatened to prosecute any doctors or any medical facilities that provided (or assisted in providing) an emergency abortion for Kate Cox. This was after the young mother of two was given the green light by the Texas district court in Austin to undergo the emergency procedure to terminate the doomed pregnancy, which also posed a physical threat to Mrs. Cox's health.
Under Texas law, a woman's life must be in danger before an abortion is permissible. Within hours of the district court's approval of Mrs. Cox's petition to terminate the doomed and dangerous pregnancy, Paxton announced that he didn't think the threat to Mrs. Cox's life was severe enough to warrant an abortion.
Texas's medical emergency statute, which the Texas Republican-controlled legislature passed after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allows for an abortion when the mother has a "life-threatening" condition while pregnant or is at "serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function."
In Kate Cox's case, her fatally flawed pregnancy and the risk to her health just weren't considered dire enough for the Republican Administration in Texas and the high court the Republicans control. So, Paxton threatened the three hospitals where Kate Cox's doctor has privileges with first-degree felony prosecutions and $100,000 in civil penalties if they allowed the young mother to terminate the doomed pregnancy at any of their facilities.
The Texas Attorney General warned the doctors and the hospitals that the district court's approval for Kate Cox to terminate the doomed pregnancy "will not insulate you, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas' abortion laws." Paxton's threat was seconded by the Texas Supreme Court, which also hurridly ruled against Mrs. Cox.
In Paxton's judgment, as well as that of the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court, Kate Cox had not sufficiently demonstrated that she qualified for the medical exception to the state's abortion ban. Amniocentesis and other tests had confirmed that her fetus was developing with a twisted spine, clubbed feet, irregular skull, and irregular heart development and would, more than likely, die in her womb or within hours of delivery. Death was certain.
"I do not want to put my body through the risks of continuing this pregnancy," Kate Cox said. "I do not want to continue until my baby dies in my belly or I have to deliver a stillborn baby or one where life will be measured in hours or days."
Too bad, said Attorney General Paxton, who immediately sent an ominous letter to the three hospitals where the doctor who was going to provide the abortion had admitting privileges. "We remind you that the temporary restraining order that approved Kate Cox's petition to terminate her pregnancy will expire long before the statute of limitations for violating Texas' abortion laws expires," Paxton threatened.
So, when all was said and done, Ken Paxton and his Republican colleagues who populate the Texas Supreme Court prevailed. "Some difficulties in pregnancy, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother that the exception encompassed," the Texas Supreme Court said in an unsigned and arrogant order to which two of the justices admitted they concurred.
Kate Cox, a young Texas mother of two, was forced to flee the Lone Star State to terminate a fatally diseased pregnancy. Ken Paxton and the Republicans had won the day.
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I hope there is a special Hot Seat in Hell for Ken Paxton.
I read the Texas court ruling on Cox's abortion request. While I disagree with such legislation, in the first place, the opinion from Paxton and the state health officer state that Cox would have been eligible for an abortion under the law IF the doctor had stated it was medically necessary, but he did not. I'm neither a doctor or a lawyer so just have my lay opinion that state laws ought to follow what seems to be allowed in most western countries - abortion through the 1st trimester and for conditions of rape, incest, the woman's health, or other crimes against women.