American President Joe Biden deemed it “scandalous” on Tuesday, December 12, that a woman with a risky pregnancy had to leave Texas, where abortions are prohibited with rare exceptions, to be able to have an abortion. “No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state simply to receive the care she needs. But that’s exactly what happened in Texas because of elected Republican officials, and it’s nothing short of outrageous. This should never happen in America, period,” the Democratic president said in a statement.
About twenty-one weeks pregnant, Texan Kate Cox, 31, recently had confirmation that her fetus had trisomy 18, a chromosomal anomaly associated with serious malformations. He is at risk of dying in utero and, even if the pregnancy goes to term, the probability that the baby will be stillborn or die a few days later is high. According to her doctor, this pregnancy also threatens Ms. Cox’s health and fertility, but she was refused an abortion due to anti-abortion laws in Texas, with her doctors telling her that her “hands are tied” according to her complaint.
After “a legal roller coaster” – a judge initially granted her an abortion, but the Texas Supreme Court blocked her decision – Kate Cox left this conservative state to obtain the emergency abortion she requested .
“Women’s health and lives now at stake”
This case illustrates the puzzle that patients and doctors have been facing since the cancellation by the United States Supreme Court of the federal guarantee of the right to abortion in June 2022. Since then, several American states have restricted or even banned abortions. .
President Biden denounced “the legal and medical chaos in states like Texas, Kentucky and Arizona, a direct result” of the decision last year by the temple of American law. “As we said would happen, women’s health and lives are now at stake,” he continued.
Texas prohibits all abortions, including in cases of incest or rape. The only exception: in the event of danger of death or risk of serious disability for the mother. But abortion rights advocates say the exceptions are too vague and doctors are terrified of being sued if they perform an abortion. In Texas, doctors face up to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and the revocation of their medical license if they perform an abortion outside the framework defined by law.
