Texas woman files lawsuit asking court to allow emergency abortion

[December 06, 2023]  By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters) - A Texas woman on Tuesday asked a court to allow her to obtain an abortion despite the state's near-total ban on the procedure, saying her fetus was likely not viable and her continued pregnancy threatened her health.

In a first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed in Travis County, Texas District Court against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Kate Cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant, sought a temporary restraining order allowing a doctor to perform an abortion without being prosecuted. She urged the court to rule "expeditiously."

Cox said her fetus had recently been diagnosed with a genetic abnormality called trisomy 18, which typically does not result in a viable pregnancy.

Cox's doctors told her that, if born alive, her baby would likely only survive for days, according to the lawsuit. Cox in the lawsuit said because she had two previous Caesarian sections, she would need to have a third one if she continues the pregnancy, which could jeopardize her ability to have more children, the complaint said.

"Yet because of Texas's abortion bans, Ms. Cox's physicians have informed her that their 'hands are tied' and she will have to wait until her baby dies inside her or carry the pregnancy to term, at which point she will be forced to have a third C-section, only to watch her baby suffer until death," the lawsuit said.

Texas's abortion ban includes only a narrow exception to save the mother's life or prevent substantial impairment of a major bodily function. Cox's lawsuit asks the court to rule that the abortion she seeks falls under that exception, and that enforcing the ban against her in these circumstances would violate the state constitution.

Pro-choice stickers adorn staff desks at Houston Women's Reproductive Services in Texas, U.S., October 1, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

Cox's husband, Justin Cox, and Damla Karsan, an OBGYN who says she would perform the abortion if not for the ban are also plaintiffs.

Paxton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Karsan is also one of 22 plaintiffs in a separate lawsuit seeking a broader order protecting Texas women's right to abortions their doctors deem medically necessary, in which the state's highest court heard arguments last week. The court has not ruled in that case.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and David Gregorio)

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