Texas Supreme Court rules woman can’t get in-state abortion

Hours before the court’s decision on Monday, Kate Cox, 31, left the state to obtain an abortion elsewhere. Her lawyers said that she no longer had time to wait for the court to decide whether she could abort her baby legally in the state under an exception to a law protecting unborn babies in Texas. Physicians had diagnosed Cox’s unborn baby with trisomy 18, a congenital condition that puts the baby at a high risk of stillbirth or infant mortality. Babies with the condition have sometimes survived to adulthood.

Why did the court rule against Cox? She had argued carrying her pregnancy to term would jeopardize her health and her ability to have more children. The court acknowledged that her pregnancy was difficult, but ruled that it did not put her life in danger. Texas law does allow abortion when the life of the mother is at risk.

Dig deeper: Read Leah Savas’s report in Vitals about Kate Cox’s situation and the decision she put before the Texas Supreme Court.