Texas woman who sought court permission for abortion leaves state for the procedure, attorneys say
LA TimesDemonstrators gather at the federal courthouse in Austin, Texas, after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. A pregnant Texas woman who was seeking court permission for an abortion in an unprecedented challenge to one of the most restrictive bans in the U.S. could not wait any longer and went to another state, her attorneys said Monday. The announcement came as Kate Cox, whose fetus has a fatal condition, awaited a Texas Supreme Court ruling on whether she could legally receive an abortion. “Rather, the only question is whether Ms. Cox’s condition meets the exception, regardless of how long the child is expected to live,” Paxton’s office told the court in a filing over the weekend. Dr. Leilah Zahedi-Spung, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Colorado and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health, said that when lethal fetal anomalies are diagnosed “there’s only risk to that pregnant person and no benefit unfortunately for that innocent child.” “You are putting your body through risks without any benefit because prolonging the pregnancy doesn’t change the survival rate,” Zahedi-Spung said.