A judge in the American state of Texas, where abortions are prohibited with very rare exceptions, decided Thursday to authorize an abortion to a woman whose pregnancy could, according to her doctor, threaten her life and fertility.
Kate Cox, 31, learned last week that her fetus had Down syndrome and is demanding an abortion. In an emergency hearing lasting less than an hour, Austin court judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted her request, ruling that the idea that Ms. Cox could lose the chance to become a new mother was “shocking”.
“It would be a real miscarriage of justice,” she insisted.
In the summer of 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned its “Roe v. Wade”, which had guaranteed for half a century the federal right of American women to terminate their pregnancies.
Texas has banned all abortions, including in cases of incest or rape. The only exception: in the event of danger of death or risk of serious disability for the mother. But abortion rights advocates say the exceptions are too vague and doctors are terrified of being sued.
Ultrasound scans revealed that Ms. Cox’s fetus, 20 weeks pregnant, had abnormalities in the spine and abdomen and that the development of her skull and heart was abnormal.
But because of the law in Texas, Ms. Cox cannot have an abortion, her doctors telling her that her “hands are tied” and that she must wait for the baby to die in her womb, according to the complaint filed on her behalf by the association specialized Center for Reproductive Rights.