The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Susan Young is the Bangor Daily News opinion editor.
I don’t know Kate Cox, nor would I presume to speak for her. But, I’m guessing that, like most expectant mothers, she was hoping for an uneventful pregnancy and birth.
She likely did not expect her pregnancy — and worse, her pregnancy complications — to make
national headlines. Yet, Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from Texas, has become a face of the cruel impacts of increasingly stringent abortion laws.
People around the country and the world now know the intimate details of Cox’s pregnancy and the discovery of a severe fetal abnormality that would likely lead to a miscarriage or stillbirth, or a life of only a few hours or days for her fetus. They know these details because these strict laws have empowered lawmakers and judges to make difficult decisions that should belong to Cox and her family.
Cox and a doctor sought permission from a court for an abortion after devastating fetal abnormalities were confirmed. Cox, who had two previous C-sections, had been to the emergency room multiple times during the pregnancy for cramping and other complications.
Her doctors determined that an abortion was the best option to safeguard Cox’s health but said they couldn’t perform one because of Texas’ strict laws. In addition to banning abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected unless the life or health of the mother is seriously threatened, Texas law also allows private citizens to file a civil lawsuit against anyone who knowingly “aids or abets” an abortion.
Earlier this month, a district court judge granted the request for an abortion but was quickly overruled by the Texas Supreme Court, which tried to shift blame to lawmakers for creating this situation.
To sum up, the Texas Supreme Court justices overruled a doctor’s determination — and a mother’s well placed wishes — and required that she continue a pregnancy that was nearly assuredly going to end in the suffering of the fetus, and which put her health and ability to have more children at risk.
Cox has since said she would go out of state to have an abortion, adding expenses and travel to the stresses of an already heartbreaking situation. It is possible that those who have helped her, including her husband, could still face legal penalties in Texas.
This is the situation the Supreme Court has left us in after its reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. This decision eliminated a long-standing constitutional right to an abortion.
In its ruling last year, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court said it was taking decisions about abortion and abortion restrictions out of the hands of the courts and returning them to the states, where the justices said they belong. Cox’s situation has shown the fallacy — and cruelty — of this decision. In some states, like Texas (and Kentucky where an unnamed woman has sued for the right to an abortion despite that state’s near total ban), judges are now more empowered than ever to make decisions that should rest with women.
The situation could get even worse as the Supreme Court this week decided to take up a case challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decades-old approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortions. Abortion opponents have sought to outlaw the use of the drug nationwide, making it even harder for women to access full reproductive health care.
It should not have been like this. I understand the strongly held beliefs that many Americans have about the sanctity of life. I respect and honor these beliefs. However, having children — and worse, dealing with pregnancy loss — are some of the most intimate decisions some of us will ever make. Those decisions should be made by the women and family members involved, not by politicians and judges who have no connection to the women and families involved. They should be made without fear of reprisals from people they don’t even know. And, the freedom to make these decisions should not be determined by what state you live in.
Without the ability to make decisions about their bodies, women risk becoming mere vessels for the whims and dictates of others. This prospect, which is increasingly becoming a tragic reality, should alarm all of us.
