The decision to leave Texas to obtain an abortion was correct: the Texas Supreme Court denied her right to an abortion under the state laws medical exception:Kate Cox, the 31-year-old Texas mother whose fetus has a fatal diagnosis, has left the state to obtain an abortion after a battle with Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) over whether she can legally terminate her pregnancy. pic.twitter.com/WN2P9qWrX9
— The Recount (@therecount) December 11, 2023
The court ruled that the lower court made a mistake in ruling that the woman, Kate Cox, who is more than 20 weeks pregnant, was entitled to a medical exception.
In its seven-page ruling, the Supreme Court found that Ms. Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, “asked a court to pre-authorize the abortion yet she could not, or at least did not, attest to the court that Ms. Cox’s condition poses the risks the exception requires.” Texas’ overlapping bans allow for abortions only when a pregnancy seriously threatens the health or life of the woman.
“These laws reflect the policy choice that the Legislature has made, and the courts must respect that choice,” the court wrote.There's a kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" catch for doctors, here. They can make "good faith" emergency decisions, but it has to be an emergency-emergency (death's door, apparently) in order to avoid professional penalties. This was the clarification sought, and per Texas Hold'em in the Uterus rules, she wasn't nearly close to death enough. Based on the arguments of state lawyers, you just can't believe dumb old doctors or dumb old women about these things, because they will just use the exception not in good faith, but to get an abortion anyway. (You know, claiming they have a real emergency in the same way women make claims about having been raped--subject to being told they are making it up. In other words, subject to how misogynistic the system wants to be: and given this law even exists, you pretty much know how it is.)
I am glad that Mrs. Cox did not wait around for the Texas death panel to see if she would die or not, but I fear for what real harassment might be in her future in this kind of culture and for what all this means for women in similar physical jeopardy who do not have the means to leave. Also, I fear that for anti-abortion zealots, this will only increase their resolve to enforce "fugitive womb" laws and create penalties for women seeking abortions--even if for their own lives and health.
3 comments:
JFC. like, holy shit. it's officially time (if it hasn't been already) for the red-state ladies to start doing some SERIOUS lysistrata shit. no fucking hets whatsoever. no body autonomy? nah, bro. you get no sex. if red-state boys wanna play, let's see how they function WITHOUT any play.
maybe the red-state ladies have a big enough lever if they choose to use it. (or NOT, as the case may be.)
Some red state ladies already know and are in a state of "what can you do?" about it (frustrating--but the TX SC I keep harping on ran unopposed, so I feel like the Democratic party has to figure out what went wrong with party infrastructure there and how to whip up real and persistent opposition) and I think the real problem is MY demographic--50+ year old white ladies who got married and then never thought it was going to be THEM. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and realized I was a bit queer and agnostic in my early teens, and being bullied made me realize there is NO ONE who isn't one degree of removal from socially OK. I look at the variously preserved human Barbie Dolls of Moms of Liberty or who haunt Mar-a-lago and feel bad for the version of themselves they stuck on: some high school version of what's attractive to a certain kind of man who doesn't grow up with them.
Some of these women wouldn't assert themselves like that for money let alone love of themselves. This is a culture not far removed from Phyllis Schlafley, who didn't think marital rape was a thing (I mean, get a ring as on it and IT'S YOURS, bought and sold, body and soul right?) and men who think date rape is just whore's remorse. Some of them most certainly can't because their men would kill them for asserting themselves like that or something only just short of.
But the voting booth is private as hell. See I think denying sex is telegraphing disobedience FOR THAT KIND OF MARRIAGE (even if I think no means no, get off my hair, I have a headache, today is not the day and i am not the one and work was work and I am off the clock are all great reasons to just say I would rather have ice cream and a back rub), but it is possible to buck the system as subtle as snakes and as gentle as doves.
"some of them most certainly can't because their men would kill them for asserting themselves like that or something only just short of."
yeah. that was a complete blind spot. i totally didn't think about that demographic, and i shoulda.
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