The Texas woman who sued the state for an abortion after receiving a lethal fetal diagnosis has now fled Texas in order to obtain the procedure, the Center for Reproductive Rights announced in a statement Monday.
The woman, Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from Dallas, sued Texas last week. While a lower-court judge ruled to allow Cox to receive an abortion, the Texas state supreme court on Friday paused that ruling. In her lawsuit, Cox said that continuing the pregnancy could threaten her life and future fertility.
Texas bans almost all abortions. Although the ban technically includes exceptions for cases of medical emergencies, doctors have said that the exceptions are too vague and force them to wait until their patients get sick enough to intervene.
“This past week of legal limbo has been hellish for Kate. Her health is on the line,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for the Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox. “She’s been in and out of the emergency room and she couldn’t wait any longer. This is why judges and politicians should not be making healthcare decisions for pregnant people.”
Cox is believed to be the first adult woman to sue for an abortion while still pregnant since Roe v Wade was overturned last year.
Her case is separate from an ongoing lawsuit, brought by 20 Texan women and two doctors, who have accused the state of denying abortions while they were in medical emergencies. That case, which is also before the Republican-stacked Texas state supreme court, is seeking to clarify the medical exceptions in the Texas abortion ban.
“Kate desperately wanted to be able to get care where she lives and recover at home surrounded by family,” Northup continued in a statement, which was posted to X. “While Kate had the ability to leave the state, most people do not, and a situation like this could be a death sentence.”
When Cox first learned she was pregnant in August 2023, she was thrilled, since she and her husband had been hoping for a third child, according to Cox’s lawsuit. But in October, she learned that her pregnancy was at high risk for trisomy 18, a condition that would likely lead Cox to miscarry or give birth to a baby who may only live for a few days at most.
Over several weeks of testing, the prognosis for Cox’s pregnancy grew worse. Cox also went to the emergency room on at least three separate occasions, dealing with severe cramping and what the lawsuit called “unidentifiable fluid leaks”. Cox is also at high risk of gestational diabetes, post-operative infections and anesthesia complications, among other health conditions, the lawsuit said.
On 28 November, the same day that the Texas supreme court heard arguments in the broader case over the Texas abortion ban, Cox’s doctors confirmed that her fetus had trisomy 18, according to the lawsuit. After talking to her husband and family, Cox decided to get an abortion.
At the time of her lawsuit, Cox was 20 weeks into her pregnancy. Dr Damla Karsan, an OB-GYN in Houston and one of the doctors involved in the broader lawsuit over the Texas abortion ban, said in court records that she might be able to perform Cox’s abortion if permitted by the court.
However, after the lower-court order in Cox’s favor, the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, threatened legal action against doctors who performed an abortion on Cox.
That order, Paxton wrote in a letter to three Houston-area hospitals, “will not insulate you, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws”. Texas has a law on the books that permits private individuals to sue over suspected illegal abortions. Regardless of the court order, doctors could be held liable under that law, Paxton warned.
When she filed her lawsuit, Cox said in a statement that she was “trying to do what is best for my baby and myself, but the state of Texas is making us both suffer”.
“It is not a matter of if I will have to say goodbye to my baby, but when,” Cox said. “I do not want to continue the pain and suffering that has plagued this pregnancy. I do not want to put my body through the risks of continuing this pregnancy. I do not want my baby to arrive in this world only to watch her suffer. I need to end my pregnancy now so that I have the best chance for my health and a future pregnancy.”
