One of First Lady Jill Biden's guests at the State of the Union address on Thursday evening, March 7, will be a young woman who has made a lasting impression. Kate Cox was 20 weeks pregnant with a baby with Trisomy 18 (also known as Edwards syndrome) when, in mid-December 2023, she appeared on TV screens in tears, her face showing incomprehension at the arguments of Texas judges that prevented her from obtaining the abortion she needed, but would so dearly have liked to avoid.
In a state like Texas, where individualism is a religion, Cox, 31, the mother of two young children, explained that she had to wait on the whims of local authorities to find out what would become of her – and with her, the baby. Initially, a lower court judge ruled in her favor. However, the Texas attorney general immediately threatened to take legal action against any hospital that took the risk of helping her terminate her pregnancy.
In the end, the Texas Supreme Court settled the case. The justices did not find her condition to be sufficiently serious – even though she had made several trips to the emergency room – for her case to warrant the exception provided for in the law, which prohibits any abortion unless the mother's life is in danger. Dismayed that her home state would inflict such "pain and suffering" on her, Cox left her home in Dallas, seeking an abortion far from Texas.
Like Cox or Amanda Zurawski – the first woman to file a lawsuit against the state of Texas, after nearly dying in August 2022 when she was denied access to abortion – victims of anti-abortion legislation are no longer afraid to appear in public, sharing their ordeals live in front of an audience. Their testimonies are the kind of lived experiences and stories that the Biden administration is more than happy to share.
From Texas to Idaho, public opinion is now keenly attuned to the plight of pregnant women, victims of ectopic pregnancy or other complications, whose fate depends not on their doctor's advice, but on a court order. These women, contrary to conservative stereotypes of women who seek abortions, are more often than not young mothers from affluent suburbs.
On February 16, in vitro fertilization (IVF) was added to the list of concerns for American women. On that day, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should enjoy the same legal protections as children. The media showed patients undergoing fertility treatment finding their appointments canceled; their IVF process paused in the middle of treatment by doctors who feared lawsuits. In response to the public outcry this generated, on March 6 Alabama's Republican governor signed a bill into law protecting those who provide or receive IVF treatment.
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