DALLAS, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Two strongly pro-life mothers, who each refused abortions that were recommended to them because of a fatal fetal diagnosis, have denounced the recent ruling of a Texas judge in Cox v. Texas that will allow a mother to kill her baby for a diagnosis of trisomy 18.
Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble gave a temporary restraining order on Thursday, December 7, suspending the application of Texas’ current abortion laws and allowing Kate Cox to kill her unborn child by abortion at 20 weeks because of a fetal diagnosis that the child had full trisomy 18, a chromosomal abnormality that is very often fatal before birth or soon after.
READ: Texas Supreme Court hears pro-abortion arguments to expand ‘health’ exceptions in pro-life laws
Nicole LeBlanc, who gave birth earlier this year to conjoined twins, baptizing and confirming them during the few hours they lived after birth, told LifeSiteNews in an exclusive statement on the Cox v. Texas case that everyone in society needs to protect the lives of babies with a fatal diagnosis. She said,
Any baby with a life-limiting diagnosis should have the highest protection coming from all directions. The parents, the family, the hospital, and the law. Every life is worth protecting, no matter how long or short. No matter how the baby is developing. We live in a time of modern medicine. We live in a time where we can make the baby comfortable for as long as we can instead of slaughtering the innocent in the place they are most protected.
Our job as mothers is to love, nourish, and protect our children from any dangers or harm.
READ: Conjoined twins born to mom who rejected abortion were baptized before they died
LeBlanc also directly addressed Kate Cox, the mother at the center of the Cox case, pleading with her to spare her child the pain of being torn apart limb by limb. LeBlanc said,
If I could write to Kate I would tell her this.
Kate, as a mother of conjoined twins, my babies had a very limited chance of survival on earth. My life was also on the line for the chance of my side ripping during the c section since the babies were fused at the chest. They grew very large even with one heart. The chance for miscarriage and stillbirth was greater than being born alive, however, they were born alive and they lived for one hour until they finally passed away on their own. They were not in any pain.
But Kate, you know what would be painful? To have your arms ripped apart, limb by limb. To have your skull crushed and a needle to go and puncture your heart and stop it.
How will you honor your baby and his or her life? How will you be able to get little handprints or footprints if they’re killed by your hand? I am able to sleep at night knowing that my girls were loved and held their whole life.
Kate, if there is a hospital that is willing to help you and your baby please travel wherever necessary. There are people who are willing to help you with whatever you need. I was also offered to abort and kill my twins but I wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt that my children were murdered because of me. Why add suffering to your baby’s life?
If you need to talk we can talk. But there are so many resources to help you, medically and emotionally. God be with you.
With love from another mom who wish she had more time ❤️
Before giving birth, LeBlanc offered moving testimony about why she was choosing life, even if she was almost certain that her children would either die in utero or moments after birth. Speaking with LifeSiteNews about the external pressure she faced to kill her twin daughters through abortion, LeBlanc said it was her faith that kept her strong throughout her heartbreaking ordeal.
READ: ‘God’s will be done’: Mother chooses life for her conjoined twin girls unlikely to survive
May 16th, 2023 Maria Therese and Rachel Clare were born, baptized and confirmed. They lived about an hour and are now enjoying the splendors of The Beatific Vision. To my beautiful Saints in Heaven, pray for us 🕊️❤️ pic.twitter.com/bhb9XNSSHx
— Nicole LeBlanc🇻🇦 (@nicolita_d) May 17, 2023
Another mother of a child with a fatal diagnosis, Deirdre Cooper, who is a public policy analyst for Texas Alliance for Life, gave a public statement in response to the Cox case, in which she detailed the story of her own son Bosco, who died before birth from trisomy 18, the same diagnosis given by doctors for Kate Cox’ child. Taking issue with abortion activists using cases of fetal abnormalities to push for the murder of innocent children, Cooper wrote,
Now that mothers and children are protected from abortion in Texas, some are suggesting that there should be exceptions made to allow mothers to abort children who have been given a fatal diagnosis. This is not compassion; this is discrimination. As a mother of a child with a fatal diagnosis, I would like to share his story and explain why I oppose adding exceptions to Texas abortion laws.
On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2020, we learned that our beloved unborn child had Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18, or Edwards syndrome, is a severe chromosomal abnormality resulting in three copies of the 18th chromosome. It can be life-limiting or, quite often, fatal.
A high-risk physician asked us if we wanted time to “think about what to do.” By this, she implied we might want to consider killing our child because of his diagnosis.
We immediately told her we loved this child and would fight for him. We asked about treatment options. The doctor was surprised and asked if we needed more time to think. I said that killing our child was not an option.
We found a new doctor, and we fought for our unborn son for the next four months.
By 36 weeks, our son’s condition was worsening, so our induction was scheduled. We walked into the hospital hoping for a miracle but knowing we most likely would not leave with a living baby. We knew we had done everything we could for our son.
Sadly, our beloved son, Bosco Joseph Paul, died during childbirth on April 20, 2021. He was delivered peacefully into my hands, adored by his brothers and sisters shortly after his delivery, and buried lovingly by our family and friends. He weighed 4 pounds 4 ounces. He had dark hair. He was beautiful. Bosco was loved every day he was with us.
One hundred twenty people came to Bosco’s funeral Mass to support us and bear witness to the value of each human life and the enormity of our loss. His gravestone is an enduring sign that our son existed and that his life, while brief, mattered.
Carrying Bosco in my womb was the greatest honor of my life. For four months, I had the privilege of sharing his story with anyone who asked about my pregnancy. I was able to explain Trisomy 18, that our son was dying, and ask for prayers. Each day, I woke up thanking God that Bosco was still alive. We had been granted one more day with him – what a blessing! It also allowed us to plan his funeral and prepare our children for his impending death.
Aborting a child with fatal abnormalities is discrimination, and it does not make anything better. Once given a fatal diagnosis, parents are now on a unique journey of preparing for the death of a beloved child.
But abortion robs that child of the chance at life, no matter how short. It robs the child of the chance of a miracle or the chance that the medical diagnosis is wrong. Abortion tries to control when the child dies as to avoid some pain down the line. But the pain is still there.
Choosing life allows the child to write his own story and for parents to love him along that journey. People say these are “such difficult situations,” but I disagree. There is nothing difficult about not killing your child, no matter his diagnosis. Losing a child is difficult, yes, but aborting that child doesn’t make it any easier.
I am grateful that we did not take the advice of those who suggested we abort Bosco. There is nothing compassionate about aborting a child with a disability now to avoid his death later.
I am here today in honor of my beloved son Bosco, to stand firmly against all exceptions. Bosco did not deserve to be aborted because of his diagnosis. His life was not a “choice.” It is unacceptable to discriminate against a baby because of his diagnosis.
Similarly, Texas Right to Life has condemned the judge’s order and the lawsuit, pushed by a New York-based pro-abortion group, the Center for Reproductive Rights, as a backdoor approach to expanding abortion up to birth for any reason in Texas.
“The Center for Reproductive Rights seeks to conflate two separate issues — the child’s disability and the risk to the mother — in order to use the lawsuit as a gateway to allow babies to be aborted for any reason, not just when the mother’s life is threatened.”
Texas law prohibits nearly all abortions except when allegedly “necessary” to save the life of the mother or to avert “serious risk of substantial impairment of major bodily function,” but abortion activists are seeking to expand the exceptions to include fetal abnormalities that are diagnosed as “fatal.”
Affirming that perinatal palliative care, not murder, is what is needed is instances of fatal diagnoses, Texas Right to Life said, “Pregnant mothers and their babies deserve compassion and love, not to be used as instruments by pro-abortion groups.”
Every child is uniquely precious and should continue to be protected in law no matter how long or short the baby’s life may be. The compassionate approach to these heartbreaking diagnoses is perinatal palliative care, which honors, rather than ends, the child’s life.
Amy O’Donnell, communications director for Texas Alliance for Life, which is fighting the attempted abortion expansions in court, said on behalf of the pro-life group, “It is heartbreaking to hear of any family facing a tragic diagnosis for their unborn child. At the same time, Texas Alliance for Life does not support taking the life of an unborn child because of a life-limiting or fatal diagnosis.”
“The Center for Reproductive Rights’ goal is for the courts to chisel away at the protections for unborn babies under the guise of ‘clarifying’ the law until elective abortion is legal up to birth,” O’Donnell warned.
Texas AG Ken Paxton warned that Thursday’s restraining order “purporting to allow an abortion to proceed will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton Responds to Travis County TRO: pic.twitter.com/zs8nMtSXON
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) December 7, 2023
To read the letter, see below. pic.twitter.com/tCZMSDGqMB
— Texas Attorney General (@TXAG) December 7, 2023
Another case regarding expansion of exceptions to abortion restrictions, Zurawski v. Texas, is currently being argued before the Texas Supreme Court. In early November, 90 lawmakers, representing half of the Lone Star State’s legislature, put their signatures to a brief written by Texas Alliance for Life to support Texas’ strong pro-life legislative protections against a challenge by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Texas currently has a heartbeat-based abortion ban that was allowed to take effect by the state and U.S. Supreme Courts thanks to its unique enforcement mechanism (citizen lawsuits rather than government prosecution), several months before the nation’s highest court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, which has allowed the state to also enforce a full, direct abortion ban dating back to 1925 and a trigger law signed in 2021.
Although politicians who want to appear moderate have long advocated for exception clauses to abortion restrictions, the position fails on principle if all innocent life is sacred. Pro-lifers stress that life begins at conception, that the deliberate killing of an unborn baby is never medically necessary, and that unborn babies are not at fault for the conditions of their conception.
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