Texas judge allows abortion in Cox case as AG Paxton threatens legal action–Washington Post

The case is believed to be among the first to seek court approval since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court

By Pradnya Joshi

A judge in Texas is allowing a woman who is 20 weeks pregnant to get an abortion in a rare case of a pregnant woman seeking a court order for the procedure since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court last year.

The case involves Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, who asked the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights for legal help in obtaining an emergency abortion in Texas after she learned last week that her fetus had Trisomy 18, also called Edwards syndrome. The genetic condition is one “that cannot sustain life,” as Cox wrote in an op-ed on Wednesday in the Dallas Morning News.

Cox’s doctor warned that carrying the pregnancy to term could jeopardize her health and future fertility, including uterine rupture and hysterectomy, according to the lawsuit filed on her behalf (full petition).

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The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, threatened legal action if the abortion takes place. In a letter addressed to the hospitals involved with Cox’s care, Paxton said that Cox’s doctor did not meet “all of the elements necessary to fall within an exception to Texas’ abortion laws” and that the judge was “not medically qualified to make this determination.”

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