Men Are Allowed to Protect Their Lives

Women Aren’t

Photo by Max Okhrimenko on Unsplash

By now you’ve probably heard about Kate Cox, the Texas woman who was carrying a 20-week fetus diagnosed with trisomy 18. From the Texas Tribune:

The amniocentesis confirmed her fetus was developing with full trisomy 18, an extreme chromosomal abnormality. If her child was born alive at all, they would survive only minutes, hours or days outside of the womb.

Cox’s dangerous pregnancy was also leaking fluid, and carrying to term almost certainly would’ve meant Cox would have to deliver by cesarean section, which she’d already done twice before. (Multiple c-sections can cause medical problems for some women, and Cox and her husband plan to try for more kids.) When her doctor recommended an abortion, Cox had to go to court to have it approved by a judge, which it was.

Then, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in. With the full weight of his office, he appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court, and the conservative court ruled against Cox, who had ironically left the state hours before to get the abortion treatment she so desperately needed.

We were assured the abortion bans came with exceptions. This woman followed all the rules and went to court. Even though she won, she still lost.