A judge in Texas on Thursday granted a pregnant woman permission to seek an abortion, in an unprecedented challenge to the state’s law prohibiting it, passed after the overturning of Roe v. Wade last year.
It was unclear if and when Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, would be able to obtain an abortion. State Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, a Democrat elected to the bench, said she would grant Cox temporary relief to obtain an abortion under the few exceptions allowed by law. The state is likely to appeal the ruling.
Cox is in the 20th week of pregnancy and doctors say her fetus has a fatal diagnosis. In a brief emergency hearing Thursday, her doctors told Gamble that Cox went to an emergency room for the fourth time since she became pregnant.
Cox and her husband attended the hearing via Zoom, but did not speak. Doctors have told Cox that if the baby’s heart stopped, induced labor would carry the risk of uterine rupture due to her previous C-sections, and that a repeat C-section at term would jeopardize her ability to have another child.
“This law could make him lose that chance, which would be a real miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind in the country since the Supreme Court last year overturned Roe v. Wade establishing the legality of abortion nationwide, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents Cox.
Since the high court’s decision, Texas and 12 other states have rushed to ban abortion at nearly all stages of pregnancy. Opponents have tried to weaken the bans — the Texas law is under challenge for being too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications — but until now no woman has appealed to the court to authorize an immediate abortion.
