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A Texas judge granted a woman’s request to allow her to end her nonviable pregnancy in spite of the state’s abortion ban, but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is now taking it upon himself to try and force the woman to give birth.
Paxton’s office has asked the Texas Supreme Court to reverse an earlier decision allowing 31-year-old Kate Cox to terminate a nonviable pregnancy that threatens her health. Cox’s lawyers said that in the unlikely event her fetus survives long enough, the baby would likely die a painful death within days of birth.
A judge had sided with Cox on Thursday, issuing a temporary restraining order against the enforcement of the ban in this case. “The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be pregnant, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking, and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” the judge said in explaining her decision, referring to warnings from Cox’s doctors that the doomed pregnancy could affect her future fertility.