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Abortion rights in the United States have been difficult to navigate since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, with states now legislating their own policies. For prospective mothers with complicated or high-risk pregnancies, that confusion has been especially acute.
Straight Arrow News contributor Jordan Reid observes how, from the perspective of an American woman, it often “feels like we’re going in reverse.” Reid reviews some of the trauma and horror that pregnant women in conservative states have endured as a result of extreme abortion bans and wonders whether it is wise to allow politicians to make these choices instead of doctors and medical professionals.
The year as I sit here is 2023. I mention it because these days it often feels like we are going in reverse, peeling back the hard-earned rights afforded to American women one layer at a time.
The latest example of this involves a situation that sharply underscores the tragedy that can result when aging white men decide that they should have more control over a woman’s body than the woman’s doctor or the woman, herself.
A 31-year-old mother of two, Kate Cox of Dallas, Texas, was seeking a 20-week abortion. The reason for this was that the fetus had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18. This is a lethal genetic disorder that also presents significant medical problems for the mother and can impact her future childbearing ability. This baby would be miscarried, or it’d be stillborn or it would die shortly after birth.
A judge acting on the advice of Cox’s doctors ruled that the abortion could go forward. And then [Texas] Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an emergency order with the Texas Supreme Court to halt it. That’s right, Ken Paxton decided that he would rather subject this young mother to truly unthinkable trauma, forcing her to endure a pregnancy that will end in either a stillbirth or being forced to witness her child suffer until they die shortly afterwards. He would rather see that happen than allow her medical decisions to be guided by medical professionals.
