Kate Cox is one of hundreds in Texas denied abortions despite serious health risks, data show

By Olivia Goldhill
Dec. 15, 2023

A Texas woman’s unsuccessful legal fight for an abortion on medical emergency grounds drew nationwide headlines in recent days, but her plight is hardly a rare occurrence amid vague and highly restrictive state laws in the post-Roe era. Kate Cox is likely one of hundreds, if not thousands, of Texans who’ve faced a similar struggle this year to get an abortion for medical reasons, according to a STAT review of studies and abortion data from other states.

Over the first six months of this year, there were 34 legal abortions recorded in Texas, all of which were categorized as both “medical emergencies” and to “preserve the health of the woman,” in a state where abortions are only permitted under such circumstances. That figure, said physicians and researchers, is far below the number of patients who would typically need abortions to protect the health of the mother, suggesting many women have been forced to continue pregnancies despite the risks, or to travel out of state for abortions.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2023/12/15/abortion-kate-cox-texas-health-risks-trisomy-18/

‘How sick is sick enough?’ Abortion bans leave providers, patients questioning when care is OK

Saturday, September 2, 2023
By Elise Catrion Gregg | News21

AUSTIN, Texas — Amanda and Josh Zurawski sit in the house they bought last year, the dream home they intended to share with their future daughter.

They’ve told their story too many times now, but they brace themselves to tell it once more — from a room just above the backyard where they will one day plant a tree in memory of the baby who never made it home.
It will be a willow, in honor of the name they chose for their little girl.

Continued: https://nondoc.com/2023/09/02/how-sick-is-sick-enough-abortion-bans-leave-providers-patients-questioning-when-care-is-ok/

How to Save Women’s Lives After Roe

A federal law exists that could protect women having life-threatening pregnancy complications—but only if the Biden administration decides to use it.

By Greer Donley and Kimberly Chernoby
JUNE 13, 2022

In February, NPR reported a story of a woman, Anna, who went into labor at 19 weeks, far too early for her child to survive outside the womb. This is a condition known as “preterm premature rupture of membranes” (PPROM), and in many cases the medically recommended treatment is abortion. Attempting to delay labor long enough to reach a point where the baby could survive can mean risking infection, sepsis, and death.

Unfortunately, Anna lived in Texas, where the state’s abortion law, S.B. 8, has effectively outlawed abortion after six weeks. As a result, the hospital—and consequently, her doctors—concluded that they could not treat her. They found a provider in Colorado and discussed whether it was safer for Anna to board an airplane or endure a long car trip, given her ongoing medical emergency. They settled on an airplane and developed a plan in case she needed to deliver her baby in the plane’s bathroom.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/roe-v-wade-overturn-medically-necessary-abortion/661255/

13.06.2022

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Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act

USA – The New Abortion Restriction No One is Talking About

Anti-abortion laws have traditionally allowed an exception to protect the “life of the mother.” Not anymore.

Opinion by MICHELE DEMARCO
04/28/2022

In 1942, my grandmother lay in a hospital bed in center city Philadelphia waiting to die. She was 26 years old, happily married, and pregnant with her first child. Only something went horribly wrong in the last trimester, and suddenly, both she and the baby were in a fight for life.

My grandfather, distraught but resolved, begged the attending physicians to do whatever it took to save my grandmother’s life, even if that meant the life inside her wouldn’t survive. But in those days that wasn’t always the practice; this was also a Catholic hospital, which forbade such a practice because it was considered tantamount to abortion. My grandfather was told she would be kept comfortable, and they would monitor both mother and baby, but that nothing would be done to privilege her life over that of their unborn child. In the end, my grandmother pulled through — barely — but sadly, the baby did not.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/28/the-new-abortion-restriction-no-one-is-talking-about-00028171