AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas woman filed a lawsuit against the state Tuesday, asking a county judge to grant her relief from restrictive anti-abortion laws and allow her to undergo medically necessary procedures. .
Dallas resident Kate Cox is 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus suffering from Edwards syndrome, a fatal genetic disease that causes severe developmental delays. According to her court filing, her doctors said there was “virtually zero” chance that her baby would survive and that continuing her pregnancy posed significant risks to her health and fertility. He reportedly advised her to have an abortion so that she could have a baby.
“I don’t want my child to come into this world just to watch him suffer a heart attack or suffocate,” Cox said in a news release. “I’m desperate for another chance to have another baby, and I want to receive medical care now that will give me the best chance of having another baby.”
In 2021, Texas passed one of the state’s most restrictive abortion laws, banning abortions from the time a fetus’s heart activity can be detected (about six weeks). A year later, in a reversal of Roe v. Wade, state “trigger laws” went into effect, banning abortion from the moment of conception, with a few exceptions. This restriction is being challenged in multiple courts.
Cox, her husband Justin, and her obstetrician-gynecologist are asking the court to temporarily block Texas’ overlapping abortion bans and allow Cox to terminate her pregnancy. Texas law allows abortion only when “a life-threatening physical condition places the woman at serious risk of death or significant impairment of a major bodily function.” There is.
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Pregnancy poses major health risks, doctors say
Cox, a father of two, was admitted to three different emergency rooms in the past month after experiencing severe seizures and unexplained fluid leakage, according to the complaint.
Her pregnancy puts her at increased risk for gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes, uterine rupture due to caesarean section, and post-operative infections, which reduces her chances of having a third child if she continues the pregnancy to term. . Cox’s doctors advised her about her future, according to her filing.
Ms Cox said she and her husband wanted to have more children, but were shocked to learn that the baby had Edwards syndrome, also known as trisomy 18. More than 95% of fetuses diagnosed with the disease die in utero, and those that survive are likely to die from congenital heart disease or respiratory failure, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Texas has one of the strongest abortion regulations in the country
Cox’s case comes a week after the Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments in another abortion-related case, Zulawski v. Texas. The lawsuit alleges that ambiguous language and “non-medical terminology” in the state law prevents doctors from providing abortions or are unwilling to provide them., Patients are forced to seek treatment outside the state or wait until their lives are at risk. Cox’s doctor is a plaintiff in Zulawski v. Texas.
A series of laws passed in Texas from 2021 to 2023 will restrict access to abortion unless a pregnant patient is at risk of death or has a “significant impairment of a major bodily function.” Diminished. Doctors who violate the law face severe penalties, including fines of 200,000 yen or more. $100,000 and a first-degree felony, punishable by up to life in prison.
Senate Bill 8 — a 2021 law that bans abortions if fetal heart activity is detected around the sixth week of pregnancy, typically before most women realize they are pregnant — would add federal protections for abortions. This left the procedure of abortion to private citizens through litigation. Providers and all parties assisting with the procedure.
In December 2021, a state district judge ruled that the law violated the Texas Constitution, but the law was allowed to remain in place while several courts examine its constitutionality.
Post row:Abortions in the US have increased slightly since restrictions were introduced