Kate Cox on her struggle to obtain an abortion in Texas

January 12, 2024
CBS News

Kate Cox was pregnant with her third child when she learned the baby had a rare genetic disorder called Trisomy 18. Cox and her husband, Justin, were informed by their doctors that if their child survived the pregnancy, her life expectancy would be at best a week. With the baby's health at risk as well as her own, Kate and Justin Cox sued the state of Texas for the right to have an abortion.

In her first interview since the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her, Cox talks about the case, her decision to have an abortion in New Mexico, and more in an interview with Tracy Smith for "CBS News Sunday Morning," to be broadcast Sunday, January 14 on CBS and streamed on Paramount+.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kate-cox-interview-on-her-struggle-to-obtain-an-abortion-in-texas/

12.01.2024

Interviews/Podcasts

Center for Reproductive Rights

Abortion Ruling Keeps Texas Doctors Afraid of Prosecution

In ruling that a pregnant woman did not qualify for a medical exception to abortion bans, the Texas Supreme Court left doctors without clear guidance on which cases might pass legal muster.

By J. David Goodman
Dec. 13, 2023

Texas doctors, women and lawyers have been asking the state for nearly two years to clarify what is and what is not allowed under strict, overlapping abortion bans. Lawmakers passed a bill this year that makes some exceptions to the bans clearer, but it wasn’t enough to help doctors decide whether they could legally give a Dallas woman, Kate Cox, an abortion.

Ms. Cox sought permission to end her pregnancy after she learned that her fetus had a fatal genetic condition. A district court judge said she qualified for a medical exception to the bans, but the Texas Supreme Court overturned that decision this week.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/us/texas-abortion-doctor-prosecution.html

Texas Supreme Court heavily scrutinizes both sides in case challenging abortion bans

Bayliss Wagner, Austin American-Statesman
Nov 29, 2023

Texas' highest court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will decide whether medical exceptions to Texas abortion bans are written clearly enough to protect women who face serious health risks during pregnancy.

The 22 plaintiffs in the case include several women forced to wait until they were sick with sepsis, a life-threatening condition, to terminate pregnancies that premature ruptures of membrane had already rendered nonviable; two women who traversed hundreds of miles for abortions of a nonviable twin to protect their and their healthy babies' lives; and a woman forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term, then watch her baby's skin turn purple and her eyeballs bleed as she slowly suffocated to death.

Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2023/11/29/texas-supreme-court-hears-case-challenging-texas-abortion-bans-health-risks-pregnancy-women/71727577007/

The women who made painful choices challenge Texas’s severe abortion ban

The state supreme court will consider arguments from 20 women who say they were denied medically necessary abortions

Carter Sherman
Tue 28 Nov 2023

After Danielle Mathisen and her husband realized they would be having a baby girl, they started calling her “Mini”. “We figured she would be a mini-me,” Mathisen said.

For months, Mathisen’s pregnancy appeared normal. Genetic testing went well. Her parents were thrilled – this would be the first grandchild in the family.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/28/texas-supreme-court-hears-extreme-abortion-ban-lawsuit

Texas Supreme Court to hear case on state abortion laws and pregnancy complications

NOVEMBER 26, 2023
By Sarah McCammon, Selena Simmons-Duffin
7-Minute Listen

The Texas Supreme Court will hear a case this week brought by women who say the state's abortion laws are harming them.

SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
This week, the Texas Supreme Court will consider this question. Are the state's abortion laws harming women when they face pregnancy complications? The case posing that question was brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fiercely defending the state's current abortion laws. Here to talk about it is NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin. Hi, Selena.
Continued: https://www.npr.org/2023/11/26/1215227706/texas-supreme-court-to-hear-case-on-state-abortion-laws-and-pregnancy-complicati

Kenya abortion: Women go to backstreet clinics amid legal ambiguity

Legal ambiguity over abortions in Kenya is pushing thousands of women to turn to backstreet clinics. BBC Africa Eye explores how abortion is shrouded in stigma and misinformation.

26th November 2023
By Zoe Flood, Linda Ngari & Tamasin Ford, BBC Africa Eye, Nairobi & London

Edith is lying on a bed covered in old newspaper in a backstreet clinic in Nairobi.

Her legs are held high by stirrups while a man in a white medical coat explains he is about to put some medicine inside her uterus. A red bucket of bleach containing medical instruments sits on the floor.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67473183

Woman travels to New Mexico for abortion care not offered to her in Texas, joins suit

Kimberly Manzano is one of seven women who joined a suit over Texas' bans.
By Nadine El-Bawab and Mary Kekatos

November 16, 2023

After moving to Texas and getting engaged, Kimberly Manzano, 34, and her now-husband, 35, started trying to get pregnant in April 2022, hoping to share happy news with their friends and family at their wedding just a few months later.

Although the couple didn't find out they were pregnant until November 2022 -- two months after their wedding -- Manzano said they were excited. That excitement turned to devastation not long after when she suffered a miscarriage.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/woman-travels-new-mexico-abortion-care-offered-texas/story?id=104924852

16.11.2023

Center for Reproductive Rights

20 women are now suing Texas, saying state abortion laws endangered them

November 15, 2023
Selena Simmons-Duffin

Cristina Nuñez's doctors had always advised her not to get pregnant. She has diabetes, end-stage renal disease and other health conditions, and when she unexpectedly did become pregnant, it made her extremely sick. Now she is suing her home state of Texas, arguing that the abortion laws in the state delayed her care and endangered her life.

Nuñez and six other women joined an ongoing lawsuit over Texas's abortion laws. The plaintiffs allege the exception for when a patient's life is in danger is too narrow and vague, and endangered them during complicated pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/11/15/1213188342/20-women-sue-texas-over-abortion-laws

More women join lawsuit against Texas for its abortion ban

by: Sam Stark
Nov 14, 2023

AUSTIN (KXAN) — While training to be an obstetrician and gynecologist in Fort Worth, Dr. Danielle Mathisen learned she was pregnant. Her initial excitement sharply turned to heartbreak when she discovered 18 weeks into her pregnancy that her baby had no formed brain structures, only one kidney and a hole in the spine.

Mathisen’s doctor told her that the baby was unlikely to survive or would suffocate upon delivery. Mathisen and her husband decided to have an abortion.

Continued: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/more-women-join-lawsuit-against-texas-for-its-abortion-ban/

14.11.2023

Center for Reproductive Rights

Dr. Danielle Mathisen

Tennessee woman runs for office after state’s abortion ban puts her life at risk

BY CRISTINA CORUJO, CBS News
NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Last week's election results in Ohio and Virginia showed abortion rights remain a powerful issue on the ballot, suggesting women rights are likely to continue to be a key topic for voters in many states. In Tennessee, terminating a pregnancy even if the mother's life is at risk is prohibited, and this has affected women like Allie Phillips, who is now running for state office in Tennessee as a result of her experience.

Phillips, a Tennessee native, never imagined she would run for elected office. She also never thought she'd be forced to leave her home state to obtain an abortion to end a pregnancy that was risking her life.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tennessee-woman-house-of-delegates-bid-abortion-ban-put-life-at-risk/

13.11.2023