(LifeSiteNews) — A Texas mother has reportedly left her home state to legally abort her disabled daughter. The decision for an out-of-state abortion comes days after the Texas Supreme Court blocked an order that would have allowed the abortion in Texas despite the state’s ban.
Thirty-one-year-old Kate Cox of Dallas made headlines for filing a lawsuit to obtain an exception to the state’s near-total abortion ban, which prohibits killing the unborn unless deemed “necessary” to spare the mother alleged risk of physical impairment or death. A heartbeat law is currently in effect, as are a 1925 full ban and a 2021 trigger law allowed to be enforced after the June 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Abortion activists are attempting to have Texas’ abortion restrictions relaxed to include exceptions for fetal abnormalities that are considered “fatal.”
READ: Moms of babies with abnormalities slam Texas ruling allowing abortion for fatal diagnosis
On Monday afternoon, the Center for Reproductive Rights – a pro-abortion group based in New York that is representing Cox – announced on X that the mother had left Texas to abort her 20-week-old daughter. The news was quickly lamented by pro-lifers in Texas and beyond.
“We mourn the decision to take Baby Cox’s life rather than give her every chance at life,” Kimberlyn Schwartz, director of media and communication for Texas Right to Life, said in a press release. “We want parents to know that there is hope when facing difficult fetal diagnoses. There are life-affirming options rather than abortion.”
Specifically, Schwartz directed parents of babies with disabilities to visit the nonprofit Abel Speaks, whose mission is to “help parents honor their children’s lives when facing a life-limiting illness.” Texas Right to Life also noted that children with trisomy 18, or Edwards syndrome, the diagnosis given to Cox’s unborn baby, “far outlive the negative prognoses given by pro-abortion medical professionals” if they are “given a chance at life” outside the womb.
The most common abortion technique in the second trimester is dilation and evacuation (D&E), or dismemberment abortion, which often involves painfully tearing apart an unborn baby limb by limb and crushing his or her skull.
READ: Nebraska bans ‘horrific’ abortion procedure that tears living baby apart limb by limb
During the days after a county district judge issued an order allowing Cox to abort her child due to trisomy 18 and unfounded allegations of risk to Cox’s health, Live Action founder and pro-life activist Lila Rose took to social media to defend disabled children’s right not to be murdered.
“It’s wrong to murder a terminally ill born child,” Rose wrote on X. “It’s equally wrong to murder a terminally ill unborn child. Very sick or disabled unborn babies don’t deserve the abortionists lethal needle or forceps—they deserve medical care, & in the cases needed, neonatal palliative care.”
It’s wrong to murder a terminally ill born child.
It’s equally wrong to murder a terminally ill unborn child.
Very sick or disabled unborn babies don’t deserve the abortionists lethal needle or forceps—they deserve medical care, & in the cases needed, neonatal palliative care.
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) December 10, 2023
In a separate post, Rose also stated that “it’s not ‘medically necessary’ to kill a disabled unborn baby. It’s a heinous thing to kill a human being because they are sick or disabled, especially a helpless baby—and insist it’s ‘compassion.’ The pro-abortion media narrative is hideously dishonest and cruel.”
READ: Abortion victim imagery is the most effective tool to convert people to the pro-life cause
It’s not “medically necessary” to kill a disabled unborn baby. It’s a heinous thing to kill a human being because they are sick or disabled, especially a helpless baby – and insist it’s “compassion.” The pro-abortion media narrative is hideously dishonest and cruel.
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) December 12, 2023
Cox’s case reached national headlines on December 7, when Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued a temporary stay on the abortion ban to allow Cox to murder her unborn child at 20 weeks. The next day, the state’s Supreme Court blocked the order in response to an appeal from Attorney General Ken Paxton and his team.