By: Constitutional Nobody

“We are grateful that the Texas Supreme Court affirmed the protections in Texas law for the unborn baby in this case,” said Amy O’Donnell, Texas Alliance for Life’s communications director. “Texas Alliance for Life strongly supports the law, as passed by the Texas Legislature, that protects unborn babies from abortion but also protects the lives and health of pregnant mothers through limited exceptions.”

The Supreme Court pointed out that Texas’ law allows abortions when a pregnancy endangers a mother’s life or risks substantial impairment of a major bodily function (such as fertility) in a doctor’s reasonable medical judgment, an objective standard.

By: Selena Simmons-Duffin , Diane Webber , Michel Martin

Anti-abortion rights groups in Texas cheered the high court’s decision. “We are grateful that the Texas Supreme Court affirmed the protections in Texas law for the unborn baby in this case,” wrote Amy O’Donnell of Texas Alliance for Life. In a previous statement, the group said the Center for Reproductive Rights was using Cox’s case to “chisel away” at Texas’s abortion laws.

4. Texas doctors face malpractice on one side, felony charges on the other
In court and in legal filings, Paxton’s office has repeatedly argued that women with life-threatening pregnancies who did not get appropriate care in Texas can and should sue their doctors for malpractice.

At the same time, all of Texas’s abortion laws target doctors who perform abortions with penalties. Doctors face life in prison, fines of $100,000 and loss of their medical license.

By: Leah Savas

Knowing stories like these encouraged another mother named Deirdre Cooper when doctors diagnosed her unborn son Bosco with trisomy 18 in 2020. Cooper is a public policy analyst for Texas Alliance for Life.

DEIRDRE COOPER: Seeing that there are families raising children with trisomy 18, they’re living and that’s something that, you know, the doctors don’t really tell you that very often they say there’s, you know, 1% chance they make it to their first birthday.

But for Kate Cox, the doctors are focused on the risks the pregnancy poses to her health and future fertility.

The court filing says Cox has gone to the emergency room for cramping and unidentifiable fluid leaks. It says continuing to carry her baby puts Cox at increased risk of conditions like gestational diabetes and hypertension. Here’s Cox again on MSNBC:

By: ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN and ADAM CANCRYN

Anti-abortion groups in Texas are rallying behind Paxton and characterizing Cox’s lawsuit as an attempt to undermine and ultimately get rid of the state’s ban. Both Texas Alliance for Life and Texas Right to Life told POLITICO they are unconvinced that Cox qualifies for a medical exemption and said she should carry the pregnancy to term even if the baby does not survive.

“When a child is aborted, they’re robbed of any length of life they might have had, and the family is robbed of the chance to hold and grieve that child. That is not the compassionate option for that family or child,” Amy O’Donnell, the spokesperson for Texas Alliance for Life, said in an interview.