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Texas Woman Denied Departure from State to Have Abortion
But what if she somehow ends it, will she not be arrested for murder?
Dear reader, please forgive me for the sensationalist headline. The Texas Supreme Court has denied Kate Cox, 31, of Texas, from getting an emergency pregnancy because, being the qualified physicians they are, they determined that the pregnancy does not risk Kate’s life.
The court did admit that Kate’s pregnancy has been one chock full of complications. It was also learned that the fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 18, otherwise known as Edward’s disease. This is a chromosomal condition, and while there have been a handful of cases where babies live to their twenties, the majority have short lives filled with suffering. Kate and her partner decided to end the pregnancy due to all of the complications and the possibility that it could harm her and her future chances of having another baby.
In its opinion, released Monday night, the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged that Cox’s pregnancy “has been extremely complicated” and “parents would be devastated to learn of their unborn child’s trisomy 18 diagnosis.” In its opinion, though, the judges wrote that “[s]ome difficulties in pregnancy, however, even serious ones, do not pose the heightened risks to the mother the exception encompasses…