Texas woman with risky pregnancy granted abortion despite state ban

A Texas judge has granted permission to a woman whose foetus has a fatal abnormality to have an abortion, despite the state's ban on the procedure.

The ruling - which Texas may challenge - is thought to be one of the first attempts to seek a court-ordered abortion.

Texas law prohibits abortion except to save the life of the pregnant woman.

Abortion advocates claim the exception is too vague and puts women at risk.

That is the argument of Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two from the Dallas area, who is currently 20 weeks pregnant.

Her foetus has been diagnosed with trisomy 18, a lethal condition that, in almost all cases, results in miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of the baby within the first year of life.

According to her lawsuit, Ms Cox's physicians told her their "hands are tied" as long as the baby had a heartbeat, because of the state abortion ban.

Doctors have told her continuing with the pregnancy poses a risk to her health and, potentially, her ability to carry another child. Ms Cox has already had to visit the emergency room four times because of pain and discharge, her lawyers said.

"Kate Cox needs an abortion, and she needs it now," her petition reads.

On Thursday, Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted that request, handing down a temporary restraining order allowing Ms Cox to terminate her pregnancy, and protecting her doctor from civil and criminal penalties if she performs the procedure.

"The idea that Ms Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice," Judge Gamble, a Democrat, said.

Lawyers for the state may ask a higher court to block the order.

At the hearing, Jonathan Stone, with the Texas Attorney General's office, argued that Ms Cox "does not meet all of the elements" to qualify for a medical exception.

A ruling in Ms Cox's case could compel the state to define more clearly when abortions are allowed under the existing law.

The emergency appeal comes as the Texas Supreme Court weighs another effort to clarify the state's abortion ban. That one is led by the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is also representing Ms Cox.

Molly Duane, a lawyer for the Center, told the conservative court late last month that the near-total ban had left physicians "terrified" to use their medical judgment over fear of harsh penalties.

Doctors who perform abortions in Texas could risk life in prison, loss of their medical license and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

While there are medical exceptions to the Texas ban, "no one knows what it means and the state won't tell us", Ms Duane said.

A lawyer for the attorney general, Beth Klusmann, said existing standards allowed doctors to use "reasonable" medical judgment.

That case - Zurawski v State of Texas - could be decided by the state's highest civil court in the coming weeks.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in June 2022 - effectively rescinding a nationwide right to an abortion - decisions about the procedure have been left to individual states.