AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday night time placed on maintain a decide’s ruling that authorized an abortion for a pregnant girl whose fetus has a deadly prognosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented problem to probably the most restrictive bans within the U.S.
The order by the all-Republican court docket got here greater than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mom of two from the Dallas space, acquired a short lived restraining order from a decrease court docket decide that forestalls Texas from implementing the state’s ban in her case.
In a one-page order, the court docket stated it was quickly staying Thursday’s ruling “without regard to the merits.” The case continues to be pending.
“While we still hope that the Court ultimately rejects the state’s request and does so quickly, in this case we fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” stated Molly Duane, an lawyer on the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.
Cox’s attorneys have stated they won’t share her abortion plans, citing issues for her security. In a submitting with the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, her attorneys indicated she was nonetheless pregnant.
Cox was 20 weeks pregnant this week when she filed what’s believed to be the primary lawsuit of its sort because the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling final 12 months that overturned Roe v. Wade. The order issued Thursday solely utilized to Cox and no different pregnant Texas ladies.
Cox realized she was pregnant for a 3rd time in August and was advised weeks later that her child was at a excessive threat for a situation referred to as trisomy 18, which has a really excessive chance of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival charges, in keeping with her lawsuit.
Furthermore, medical doctors have advised Cox that if the child’s heartbeat had been to cease, inducing labor would carry a threat of a uterine rupture due to her two prior cesareans sections, and that one other C-section at full time period would would endanger her skill to hold one other little one.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued that Cox doesn’t meet the standards for a medical exception to the state’s abortion ban, and he urged the state’s highest court docket to behave swiftly.
“Future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if Plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” Paxton’s workplace advised the court docket.
He additionally warned three hospitals in Houston that they may face authorized penalties in the event that they allowed Cox’s doctor to offer the abortion, regardless of the ruling from state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton referred to as an “activist” decide.
On Friday, a pregnant Kentucky girl additionally filed a lawsuit demanding the precise to an abortion. The plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe, is about eight weeks pregnant and he or she needs to have an abortion in Kentucky however can not legally accomplish that due to the state’s ban, the go well with stated.
Unlike Cox’s lawsuit, the Kentucky problem seeks class-action standing to incorporate different Kentuckians who’re or will develop into pregnant and need to have an abortion.
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