Texas Supreme Courtroom pauses ruling permitting pregnant lady to have an abortion : NPR

Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally on the Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas, Could 14, 2022.

Eric Homosexual/AP

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Eric Homosexual/AP

Abortion rights demonstrators attend a rally on the Texas state Capitol in Austin, Texas, Could 14, 2022.

Eric Homosexual/AP

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Courtroom on Friday night time placed on maintain a decide’s ruling that accredited an abortion for a pregnant lady whose fetus has a deadly prognosis, throwing into limbo an unprecedented problem to one of the crucial restrictive bans within the U.S.

The order by the all-Republican courtroom got here greater than 30 hours after Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mom of two from the Dallas space, acquired a brief restraining order from a decrease courtroom decide that stops Texas from imposing the state’s ban in her case.

In a one-page order, the courtroom mentioned it was briefly staying Thursday’s ruling “with out regard to the deserves.” The case continues to be pending.

“Whereas we nonetheless hope that the Courtroom finally rejects the state’s request and does so shortly, on this case we worry that justice delayed will likely be justice denied,” mentioned Molly Duane, an legal professional on the Heart for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.

Cox’s attorneys have mentioned they won’t share her abortion plans, citing considerations for her security. In a submitting with the Texas Supreme Courtroom 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 variety because the landmark U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling final yr that overturned Roe v. Wade. The order issued Thursday solely utilized to Cox and no different pregnant Texas ladies.

Cox discovered 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 often called trisomy 18, which has a really excessive probability of miscarriage or stillbirth and low survival charges, in line with her lawsuit.

Moreover, medical doctors have advised Cox that if the infant’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 means to hold one other youngster.

Republican Texas Legal professional Common 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 courtroom to behave swiftly.

“Future prison and civil proceedings can not restore the life that’s misplaced if Plaintiffs or their brokers proceed to carry out and procure an abortion in violation of Texas regulation,” Paxton’s workplace advised the courtroom.

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 Choose Maya Guerra Gamble, who Paxton known as an “activist” decide.

On Friday, a pregnant Kentucky lady additionally filed a lawsuit demanding the suitable 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 achieve this due to the state’s ban, the go well with mentioned.

Not like Cox’s lawsuit, the Kentucky problem seeks class-action standing to incorporate different Kentuckians who’re or will change into pregnant and need to have an abortion.