Texas- Where a woman's uterus is the property of the state...and Ken Paxton is the Gatekeeper
If the Lone Star State wanted women to make decisions about their bodies, they would've been born with a penis, don'tchathink?
Learn to distinguish the difference between errors of knowledge and breaches of morality. An error of knowledge is not a moral flaw, provided you are willing to correct it; only a mystic would judge human beings by the standard of an impossible, automatic omniscience. But a breach of morality is the conscious choice of an action you know to be evil, or a willful evasion of knowledge, a suspension of sight and of thought. That which you do not know, is not a moral charge against you; but that which you refuse to know, is an account of infamy growing in your soul. Make every allowance for errors of knowledge; do not forgive or accept any break of morality.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Kate Cox is unfortunate to live in the (not so) Great State of Texas, where men are men and women…well, they’re the unquestioned property of men. Women no longer have the right to make decisions regarding their reproductive health care because the White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals in the Texas Legislature have decided to make those decisions for them.
How thoughtful of them to remove that burden from the shoulders of women, eh? Especially when women have SO many other things in their lives to worry about- cooking, cleaning, keeping track of children, making time to have sex with hubby, etc.
So when the Legislature passed its draconian anti-abortion legislation that allowed ordinary citizens to report anyone who participated in or assisted a woman in obtaining an abortion, most Republicans thought it was the next logical step.
But what happens when a pregnant woman is faced with a potentially life-threatening situation? What if it comes down to a choice between the life of the fetus or the life of the mother?
Are legislators making medical decisions? Sure, why not? What could possibly go wrong?
In Texas, where a woman is considered little more than a vessel and a fetus is the all-important part of the equation, it’s an easy call.
Except for the mother involved, of course, which is why Kate Cox went to court.
sometimes, nature fucks up in the most extraordinary way. it’s nobody’s fault. it just happens.
Kate Cox is the mother of two children. she and her husband wanted a third, and so — spoiler alert — she became pregnant.
good news, right? unfortunately, in this case, no — because of that sometimes nature fucks up thing.
Kate’s fetus bears an extra copy of chromosome 18 — a condition known as Trisomy 18. this syndrome causes a fetus to have multiple severe defects, to the heart, the brain, appendages and elsewhere.
in most cases, such a fetus dies in utero and is stillbirthed, or is born and lives a few minutes or hours.
to add more horror to this story, if Kate brings her pregnancy to term, it will very likely damage her uterus — ending her ability to have the third child she wants.
in a civilized country, Kate Cox would be free to terminate her pregnancy and try again — but she doen’t live in a civilized country. she lives in America. even worse, she lives in the state of Texas.
Yeah, ask me how much I miss Texas….
The Lone Star State, which gives a whole new meaning to “medieval,” has no problem with humiliating women like Kate Cox, even up to and beyond the point of killing her if that’s what happens…’cuz that would be God’s will, don’tchaknow?
In this case, Ms. Cox’s life may not be in danger, but her ability to have children in the future may be. This is precisely the sort of medical dilemma a black-and-white abortion ban is unequipped to address.
So Ms. Cox, because she lives in Mordor Texas, was forced to appear in court and argue before a judge whether or not she should be allowed to have an abortion.
Yes, the person making the decision wasn’t a doctor or a trained medical professional. It was a judge. And that judge had no medical training or experience. The decision was based not on Ms. Cox’s health or future ability to have children but upon the law.
The State of Texas fought the judge’s ruling with every legal weapon they had.
Johnathan Stone, an attorney with the Texas attorney general’s office who represented the state in the hearing, argued that Cox and her husband had not sufficiently demonstrated that they would suffer “immediate and irreparable injury” without an abortion.
“The only party that’s going to suffer an immediate and irreparable harm” if the judge grants the requested order, he said, “is the state.”
Say what? The STATE will suffer “an immediate and irreparable harm?” And Kate Cox, being a woman, is just a prop?
How will the Great State of Texas be able to treat women like commodities if they’re allowed to have abortions because of a little thing like a fatal genetic abnormality?
In a statement Thursday afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that the judge’s order “will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws. This includes first degree felony prosecutions.”
In a letter to three Texas hospitals where Cox's doctor has practiced, Paxton warned that the facilities could be found liable for negligently credentialing her or for failing to exercise appropriate professional judgment in allowing the doctor to perform an abortion.
Ken Paxton's an absolute peach of a guy. He sent a writ of mandamus to the Texas State Supreme Court demanding that they vacate the temporary restraining order that was initially granted to Ms. Cox:
The trial court entered a temporary restraining order allowing Plaintiffs to perform and procure an abortion of a single child even though Plaintiffs failed to plead and prove that they satisfy the requirements for a medical-emergency exception. By applying language not found in Texas law, the trial court’s order represents an expansion of the statutory exceptions to Texas’s abortion prohibitions. Because the life of an unborn child is at stake, this Court should require a faithful application of Texas statutes prior to determining that an abortion is permitted.
This Court should issue an emergency stay and mandamus relief. Should the abortion occur while the TRO is in place, nothing will prevent enforcement of Texas’s civil and criminal penalties once the TRO erroneously prohibiting enforcement is vacated. But enforcement of Texas’s laws will not restore the unborn child’s life lost in the interim. That irreparable loss necessitates this Court’s immediate action. Relators therefore respectfully request that this Court issue mandamus relief.
The child’s life is already lost. It has a fatal fetal abnormality. So this isn’t about the life of an unborn child that has no hope of survival outside Kate Cox’s womb. Ken Paxton doesn’t give a damn about the fetus. Or Ms. Cox. No, this is about his protecting the right of the State of Texas to control women’s bodies.
You wouldn't be far wrong for thinking this reads like Texas aspires to become a carbon copy of Gilead from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. With Christofascists Like Ken Paxton, Governor Greg Abbott, and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, these White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals Christofascists think they’re doing the Lord’s work. It’s Christianity without the “Christ.” Or the compassion.
Late Friday night, the Texas Supreme Court did stay the TRO issued to Kate Cox “without regard to the merits” of the case. The court wanted time to study the arguments and issue a final ruling.
“We fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” said Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Ms. Cox.
If nothing else, Paxton is hoping he can run out the clock on Ms. Cox, who isn’t working with an unlimited amount of time. If Paxton can drag out the legal appeals process long enough, Ms. Cox will eventually have to give birth to a child with a fatal fetal abnormality unless she leaves Texas to have an abortion. Unless she does so, she may lose her ability to have another child.
This is not about ensuring that an infant will get to live for a few hours outside of the womb, this is about the fact that Paxton fears that if Katie Cox is allowed her abortion, it will chip away at his gross and purposely vague anti-abortion laws. Indeed, he believes that this is the whole purpose of this suit.
If you are wondering why Texas’ law does not include an exception for fatal fetal anomalies, it is because anti-abortion types are obsessed with forcing women to give birth to babies with no chance of survival because if they somehow did survive, it would be a miracle. They just want to give Jesus a chance to do a miracle! And they love miracles! Especially when they can then use said miracles as a cudgel against others facing similarly horrifying diagnoses who may want to have abortions. These are the people that Ken Paxton wants to make happy. Well, them and (allegedly) the occasional real estate developer.
Paxton is not going to change his mind because he loves being a hero to those who oppose abortion rights more than he cares about anyone’s life. Paxton sees any exception made as a threat to the abortion laws that he wants to be his legacy and he’s not going to let Katie Cox or any other woman about to give birth to a dead baby and lose her ability to have another one stand in the way of that.
UPDATE: Turns out that one of the judges who issued the ruling has previously been arrested 37 times for protesting abortion clinics and bragged in his campaign ad about his wife surviving a labor that was supposed to kill her just to watch their baby die an hour after it was born, but he swears that this does not mean he can’t issue an unbiased reading in this matter. Texas!
Texas…where impartial justice…and the meaning of “pro-life”…go to die.
The inhumanity and lack of compassion behind Ken Paxton’s legal moves are stunning but perfectly in character with his Christ-less Christianity. That there’s a woman’s future fertility involved moves Paxton not at all, even when she’s carrying a fetus that has no chance of surviving outside the womb.
This has nothing to do with being pro-life or honoring the sanctity of life. It never has and never will. It is and always has been about the desire of White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexuals to control women and their bodies.
Because that’s precisely what Jesus would do, eh?
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She has since gone out of state to get her needed abortion. Illinois would be the logical choice -- we, especially in the southern part -- have become something of a mecca for women's health, surrounded as we are by red states.
By the bye, a lot of the text in the above came up severely scrambled for me. I assume others have had the same problem.