Since the Supreme Court returned abortion law to the states, the issue has changed in many states in a way that pro-life advocates, myself included, didn't see coming. Pro-life advocacy is rooted in the idea that unborn babies, even in the first trimester, are created in God's image and deserving of life and legal protection. One Texas woman's pregnancy is showing that while pro-life laws do save babies, they can also create controversy when life, risks, and complications aren't as black and white as laws are.
Kate Cox is a 31-year-old pregnant mother of two who left Texas to have an abortion after the state refused to grant it. She'd already been to the emergency room several times, once leaking amniotic fluid. Prior to this decision, medical providers told her and her husband their unborn baby had a bevy of complications, the most critical of which is full trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that often, but not always, results in stillbirth. As Cox's pregnancy progressed her health worsened.
The couple filed a lawsuit asking to have an abortion—Texas' law provides an exception to its abortion ban when the mother has "a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy." Cox's complaint says that in one doctor's medical opinion "the risks of trisomy 18 pregnancy combined with Ms. Cox's medical history and comorbidities indicate that Ms. Cox's life, health, and fertility are at risk if she continues the pregnancy" and "abortion is the best medical option to preserve Ms. Cox's life, health, and fertility."
A Travis County district judge ruled Cox shouldn't be penalized for having an abortion but Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton disagreed, asking the state Supreme Court to overturn that ruling, which it did. (It also asked the Texas Medical Board to help clarify the law, which could help.) Paxton also said if Cox had an abortion, her doctor wouldn't be immune from civil or criminal prosecution.
This heartbreaking story has made national news as a rare example of a case that has even divided staunch pro-life supporters. On X, conservative author Ann Coulter posted, "The prolife movement has gone from compassion for the child to cruelty to the mother (and child). Trisomy 18 is not a condition that is compatible with life." When Lila Rose, president of LiveAction, a pro-life organization, posted that Cox's case "is being heavily misrepresented" and that "A child's life is precious, no matter the challenges she has to overcome and the health conditions she might experience," she was met with skepticism, even from sympathetic voices. Allie Beth Stuckey, podcast host and opinion writer at WORLD, asked, "what is your rationale behind this position?" Mother of six and author Bethany Mandel posted that while she agrees with the tenets of the pro-life position, this case could provide an exception. "Here's where I veer off from the mainstream pro-life movement...in cases like these where there is a severe fetal abnormality, the choice to make should be the mother's." Mandel went on to explain her viewpoint comes from Jewish law which also emphasizes the mental health of the mother.
One of the most compelling aspects of the pro-life position is its consistency—its insistence that human life is deserving of respect, dignity, and legal protection from conception until natural death. Many laws have been passed with this principle in mind. And why dabble in exceptions or gestational limits in the law, when there aren't any in the principle?
But Cox's case, however unusual, demonstrates that very rare exception which could call into question the pro-life movement's values. A doctor believed Cox's life not to be "imminently" at risk, as the complaint says, but "at high risk for many serious medical conditions that pose risks to her future fertility and can become suddenly and unexpectedly life-threatening." There is not a lot of daylight between those two things, however. The window between them could close rapidly. Is it pro-life to wait until a mother of two is at death's door? Is it even pro-life to induce birth and see what happens? Is it pro-life to let lawyers decide, or doctors? What if the doctor is already pro-choice?
Abortion has been essentially banned in Texas since September 2021. An October 2021 poll showed that 45 percent of Texans agreed with the ban, except to save the mother, and 72 percent of Republicans did. A June survey, released a year following Dobbs v. Jackson, found that 71 percent of Democrats in Texas want to make it easier to obtain an abortion but almost half of Texas Republicans want to keep the state's current law. One-third of Republicans favor making abortions easier to obtain. Judging by these statistics, constituents don't seem to be becoming more pro-life.
Abortion bans do save lives. There were only 34 reported abortions in Texas in the first nine months of 2023 compared to more than 50,000 in 2020. This is a good thing. By this metric, the pro-life movement has succeeded. Whether laws create culture or culture creates laws is debatable, but the movement undoubtedly wants more people to adopt a culture of life. It can do so by caring about babies and their mothers. Babies deserve a chance at life—but mothers also deserve protection, care, and compassion. Laws, politicians, and culture should reflect this too.
Nicole Russell is a mother of four who has worked in Republican politics. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and the Washington Examiner. She is an opinion columnist at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Texas' Kate Cox Case Complicates Pro-Life Principles
5
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19.12.2023
Since the Supreme Court returned abortion law to the states, the issue has changed in many states in a way that pro-life advocates, myself included, didn't see coming. Pro-life advocacy is rooted in the idea that unborn babies, even in the first trimester, are created in God's image and deserving of life and legal protection. One Texas woman's pregnancy is showing that while pro-life laws do save babies, they can also create controversy when life, risks, and complications aren't as black and white as laws are.
Kate Cox is a 31-year-old pregnant mother of two who left Texas to have an abortion after the state refused to grant it. She'd already been to the emergency room several times, once leaking amniotic fluid. Prior to this decision, medical providers told her and her husband their unborn baby had a bevy of complications, the most critical of which is full trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that often, but not always, results in stillbirth. As Cox's pregnancy progressed her health worsened.
The couple filed a lawsuit asking to have an abortion—Texas' law provides an exception to its abortion ban when the mother has "a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy." Cox's complaint says that in one doctor's medical opinion "the risks of trisomy 18 pregnancy combined with Ms. Cox's medical history and comorbidities indicate that Ms. Cox's life, health, and fertility are at risk if she continues the pregnancy" and "abortion is the best........
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