So, for all those Independent voters and perhaps center left Democrats and center right Republicans who thought that sending abortion back to the states was a reasonable compromise, and that those (generally GOP controlled states) would fashion abortion guidelines that allowed for women to access this medical care when their doctors' thought it medically necessary, the truth has now been revealed in stark reality. At least in Texas, legislators and one odious Attorney General, it is crystal clear that they are not interested in women's health or even the well being of a fetus.
It is all about controlling women and treating them as second class citizens, good only for their capacity to make babies. Period.
For those of you who have not followed the case of Kate Cox, she is a married woman, mother of two children who went to court to seek approval for an abortion, as her pregnancy had passed the six week restriction that is current Texas law.
You see, Texas legislators had demonstrated their lack of knowledge about a woman's reproductive system (many women don't know they are pregnant within six weeks), or the modern state of maternal medicine which is able to identify fetal anomalies (but which can not be done until 14 to 18 weeks into the pregnancy), when they passed their draconian six week ban.
In Kate's case, fetal testing had determined that her baby has a fatal condition that would result in death either during the pregnancy, or very soon after birth. There was no scenario in which the child would live. In addition, the pregnancy was negatively effecting her health causing her to be admitted to a hospital emergency room multiple times.
As a result, her doctors recommended an abortion. Unfortunately, there was some trepidation on the doctor's part as the medical necessity to save the life of the mother exception written into the Texas abortion ban, did not clarify this point. Kate's doctors knew that her life was not necessarily at immediate risk, and, since the Texas abortion ban included severe penalties against any hospital or doctor who participated in an abortion, they were hesitant to authorize one, instead recommending that she go out of state for her medical care.
Think about that for a second. Doctors who knew the risk of Kate's continuing pregnancy for her life and future ability to have a child (her past birth experiences were by cesarean section), advised her to leave her home state to get the medically necessary care she required out of fear that if they provided such care, their personal lives could be subject to harm via loss of license, loss of hospital affiliation and significant fines.
But Kate wanted her care to occur in her home town where she could have the support network of her family as well as the familiarity of the doctors with whom she has been associated during her child bearing years, so she went to court to ask for approval for the abortion.
The presiding judge, upon hearing of the details of Kate's situation, granted the request, even though the state's lawyers fought against granting the exception.
(As a side note, there is already a case in Texas court where a number of women are suing the state to revise the abortion ban to detail when the exception clause can be exercised. The Texas state defense in that case is centered on those women not having "standing", which means they are not currently pregnant so shouldn't have the right to sue.)
In other words, Kate seemed to be the perfect candidate to challenge the law since she is pregnant. Or was pregnant.
Unfortunately, as soon as the judge granted the exception, that aforementioned attorney general, appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court, as well as issuing threatening letters to Kate's doctors and the hospitals where they practiced.
As a result, Kate went out of state for her medical care which was fortunate as the Texas Supreme Court, after waiting almost 3 days, summarily ruled in favor of the state and disallowed the exception as granted by the lower court. The court ruled that the fetal anomaly did not qualify for an abortion as specified in the law as Kate's condition was not immediately life threatening.
In essence, a woman in Texas, and a number of other states, needs to be inches from death until an abortion can be granted, and even then, if an Attorney General disagrees with the "immediate possibility of death" diagnosis, or can find one doctor to contest that diagnosis, the women, her doctor and the hospital where the abortion is performed, may still be held criminally liable for murder. In America!
What is truly sad is that as we speak, women are dying in America from childbirth. We are dead last in maternal death rates when compared to the other "modern" countries. In fact, the United States maternal death rate is four times or more higher than such a long list of countries, it would make you vomit, if you were actually pro-life. Here is one such source for this info.
Unfortunately, it will now get worse as doctors will be forced to wait until the very least moment to perform an abortion to save the life of the mother in a number of states due to their misogynist abortion bans.
I have used the label Abortion on four posts since the Dobbs decision was rendered. Links are below if interested.
In one of them, I suggested that we need to voice our demand for the return of the right to an abortion at the ballot box, and since then, every single referendum which sought to create a state constitutional right to an abortion has overwhelmingly been approved by the voters, even in red states like Ohio and Kansas.
Bur we can't stop there. I am generally not a fan of the one issue voter. I believe that it is virtually impossible to agree with any candidate on every issue (if you do you are either a sycophant or just uninformed), but rather you must prioritize the issues in terms of importance to you, as well as look at the overall record of opinions by any candidate to determine percentage of common perspective.
However, I am waving this requirement as of now. Please, regardless of viewpoints on the other critical issues of the day, I implore all voters, especially women, and men with daughters, nieces, grand daughters or female cousins, to gauge your voting choice on whether a candidate supports a woman's right to make her own reproductive decisions, in consultation with her family and doctors, without government interference.
Until we elect public servants who legislate in this manner, we will continue to hear stories like Kate's, and worse, stories concerning women who lack the means to go out of state for their health care, but instead die in emergency rooms from complications that could have been prevented, and stories about babies born with fetal anomalies that result in their painful deaths soon after birth.
Pro-life my ass!
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