The cruelty of the so-called right to life movement on display in Texas

WAMC Northeast Public Radio | By Michael Meeropol

Published December 15, 2023 at 3:52 PM EST

I assume most listeners have heard of Kate Cox, the Texas woman who is carrying a child with a rare immune-compromised birth defect.

[The following three articles are particularly useful in giving background information:

As a result of a routine amniocentesis to rule out birth defects, she and her husband got the devastating news that the fetus suffered from “…trisomy 18, a fatal genetic condition sometimes called Edwards syndrome that can cause heart defects and other organ abnormalities. In at least 95% of cases, the fetus doesn’t survive full-term and the pregnancy ends in miscarriage or stillbirth,” [Quote from the CNN.com article which also notes that] “Cox has been to the emergency room four times in the last month due to symptoms like severe cramping, diarrhea, leaking of fluid and elevated vital signs, ... And because she’s already delivered two children via C-section, her physicians have warned she is at high risk for complications, including possible uterine rupture in future pregnancies.”
Because of that situation, the dead fetus would have to be delivered by C-section, in which case, Ms. Cox, the mother of two children, would probably lose the ability to have any more children. And that is a terrible burden because she and her husband have said that they want a large family.

Given the situation, her lawyers petitioned a Texas Court to declare that she met the “exemptions” to Texas’ wildly restrictive abortion law. Her lawyer stated she had a “… good faith belief and medical recommendation that the Emergent Medical Condition Exception to Texas’s abortion bans and laws permits an abortion in Ms. Cox’s circumstances, as Ms. Cox has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from her current pregnancy that places her at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of her reproductive functions if a D&E abortion is not performed.” [Quoted in the vox.com article above.]

Texas’ abortion law defines the “exception” this way. It provides for abortions to protect the life of the mother and to protect against “impairment of bodily functions.” Now I am neither a doctor nor a lawyer but it seems to me that not being able to have a child (say because a complication of continuing to carry to doomed fetus to term would cause a hysterectomy) impairs a bodily function --- which is just what Ms. Cox’s lawyer stated.

And a district court Judge in Texas agreed – issuing an injunction allowing Ms. Cox’s doctor to terminate her pregnancy without fear of prosecution under Texas’ draconian law. This abortion would have PROTECTED HER FUTURE RIGHT TO HAVE ANOTHER CHILD. One would think that the so-called “right to lifers” would be supportive of Ms. Cox’s efforts.

Enter one of the most disgusting human beings in this country – Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas. He is such an over-the-top opponent of abortion that he is willing to make it impossible for Ms. Cox to bring a desired, wanted child into this world just so he could put some more shine on his “pro-life” medals --- thereby continuing to endear him to his fans in the anti-choice movement. I assume he wants to end up being Governor of Texas some day and maybe a Vice Presidential candidate for some MAGA Republican in the future.

Paxton appealed the Judge’s ruling to the Texas Supreme Court but he went further --- he sent threatening letters to three hospitals and to Ms. Cox’s physician reminding them that the penalties for violating Texas’ dark ages abortion ban were sentences of up to 99 years in prison. In effect he said that since the Judge had issued a temporary restraining order, when it lapses, the people involved in Ms. Cox’s abortion will be liable under Texas’ anti-abortion law for civil and criminal penalties --- including being prosecuted for felonies that carry maximum sentences of LIFE IN PRISON.

Faced with uncertainty, Ms. Cox left Texas to get an abortion in a state where it is not illegal. That of course had its own problems --- she would have to be a strange location, recuperating in a hotel room, not her home, with a new doctor. (Obviously, she has the economic resources to do this --- and there is no question that people from all over the country have rushed to support her so even if she were completely indigent, the expense would not be a barrier --- Nevertheless, it would have been much less traumatic for her to have the procedure with her doctor in her hospital and stay in her own home for recovery.)

By the way, she was right to leave Texas. The Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Ms. Cox’s physician had not “said the magic words” that would bring her condition into conformity with the language of the statute. By their ruling, according to many observers, including Michelle Goldberg, a NY Times OP-ED columnist, the Texas Supreme Court has signaled that the “exemptions” in the law are phony. In Goldberg’s recent column, Ms. Cox’s lawyer was quoted as saying the Court’s message is “…that they never meant the medical exemption to mean anything at all.” [See “Texas Proves Abortion Ban Exemptions Are a Sham” New York Times: December 13. 2023, p. A23]

One sees in his actions and the rubber stamp the Texas Supreme Court gave to him when it overturned the first Judge’s orders the incredible cruelty of the so-called Right to Life Movement. It reminds me of a very poignant but accurate judgement from former Congressman Barney Frank who stated that for too many members of the so-called right to life movement, life begins at conception and ends at birth. Once a child is born, the rest of society has no responsibility for that person’s well-being --- only in the womb does it deserve “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!” (Of course, I’m being snarky --- something that can be conveyed on the radio with tone but is hard to do on the page.). But I’m serious. Right-wingers who are the vast majority of the so-called “right to life movement” oppose free pre-school, payments to poor women with children, you name it.

(They were apoplectic that in response to COVID, Congress passed a big expansion of the refundable child tax credit which cut the child poverty rate dramatically. The minute they had a chance to stop its extension – in horrendous alliance with Senator Joe Manchin who claimed to be a Democrat for most of his political career --- they did and the child poverty rate has gone up since. Details here.)

I urge people to remember the story of Ms. Kate Cox and Attorney General Paxton. This is what the MAGA future of the country looks like --- we can see it in states like Texas and Florida. The Republicans in Congress want to ban abortion everywhere in the United States after 15 weeks. If Trump gets re-elected and the Republicans take back the House and Senate that will be our future. There will be no states to move to from Texas, Florida and other states ruled by MAGA Governors and Legislators. And, of course, such a federal law will TRUMP (sorry for the pun) all recent efforts in states such as Kansas and Ohio to enshrine abortion rights in their own Constitutions.

And what is particularly galling about this is that the majority of people in this country support abortion rights --- as demonstrated by the success of ballot measures in states that voted for Trump. Paxton and his imitators couldn’t care less about what the voters want. That is why a national law codifying the protections in Roe v. Wade which were overruled by the Supreme Court in Dobbs is essential.

But politics aside. The cruel behavior of Paxton, the Texas Supreme Court and their ilk just make me sick.

Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies.

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