Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortion
Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortion
The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has threatened to prosecute any doctor who provides an abortion to Kate Cox, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy, advising hospitals to ignore a court order issued on Thursday allowing her to get the procedure.
The rightwing Paxton issued the warning to three Houston-area hospitals after a Texas judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, may obtain an abortion under the narrow medical exceptions offered by the state bans.
In a brazen dismissal of the court’s decision, Paxton wrote that the judge’s order “will not insulate hospitals, doctors or anyone else from civil and criminal liability”.
Paxton also wrote that the hospital where Cox obtains an abortion “may be liable for negligent credentialing the physician” who performs the procedure.
An attorney general is “advising hospitals to ignore a court order”.
Read that sentence again.
He is supposed to be an officer of the court. It is his job to uphold the law, regardless of how he feels about it personally. The judge ruled explicitly on this particular woman’s specific situation - there is no reasonable room for interpretation here.
This man is putting his own opinion above the rule of law. He is radically unsuited for his job and deserves to be disbarred.
As a physician, I am completely lost as to why any OB-GYN (or other healthcare professional, for that matter) still feels comfortable practicing in the state of Texas.
They literally criminalized healthcare and turned doctors into potential perps. I'd be terrified that a patient unplanned miscarriage would turn into a murder investigation with me as the primary suspect.
“While the Biden administration continues to make up rules that are unconstitutional, I will keep holding them accountable,” Paxton said in a statement released earlier this year. “I will not allow the Biden administration to threaten doctors and hospitals with this unlawful mandate and put millions of Texans’ access to healthcare on the line.”
Reading this as a non-American, it feels surreal. How can such a basic right be stripped from all women, and then have men stand up and defend such a disgusting situation. Do they have no shame? No moral compass?
Some of these republicans have never even heard of angry mobs pulling people who destroy their lives out of their homes and returning the favor. Just fucking with people with impunity.
He just interfered with this woman's ability to pursue legal Healthcare to protect her life. If she dies as a result of the medical complications associated with the pregnancy, I don't see how he doesn't get charged with manslaughter at a minimum.
I feel like that's all that's needed to drop a SLAPP suit on him, which is Ironic because Anti-SLAPP laws are one of the areas where Texas is actually ahead of the curve