Texas Supreme Court justices.
The Supreme Court of Texas
Texas supreme court justice John Devine once campaigned on his wife’s high-risk pregnancy.His wife carried the pregnancy to term even though it could’ve killed her, a local outlet reported.The court this week ruled against a pregnant woman at the center of a contentious abortion case.
One of the justices who sits on the all-Republican Texas supreme court once campaigned on his wife’s decision to carry a high-risk pregnancy to term even though it could have killed her.
On Monday, the court unanimously ruled against a pregnant woman at the center of a contentious abortion case in the state.
Justice John Devine, an anti-abortion former district court judge who was first elected to the Supreme Court of Texas in 2012, made his wife’s high-risk pregnancy a pillar of his campaign for his seat on the bench, the Texas Observer reported at the time.
As Devine faced off against then-incumbent Justice David Medina, he published a video on his campaign website detailing how his wife gave birth to their seventh child, Elizabeth, even though the fetus had a condition that endangered his wife’s life, according to the news outlet.
Devine’s wife survived, but the baby died an hour later, the Texas Observer reported.
The video that was on Devine’s campaign website dubbed “Elizabeth’s story,” opened with: “What if your beliefs were so powerful, they allowed you to fearlessly risk your life for the life of your unborn child?” according to the news outlet.
“Though Elizabeth died only an hour after she was born, her life began at conception,” the video went on to say.
Devine and the other eight justices on the Texas supreme court on Monday overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed a 31-year-old pregnant woman, Kate Cox, to get an emergency abortion in Texas, which has a near-total ban on the procedure.
Attorneys for Cox, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant and whose fetus has a fatal condition, said hours before the Texas supreme court’s ruling that Cox left the state to get an abortion elsewhere.
“Her health is on the line. She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer,” said Nancy Northup, the president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Cox.