Daily Archives: December 8, 2023

Another Outrage from Ken Paxton

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The story thus far: Kate Cox is a Texan who very much wants babies. But she’s been going through a terrible pregnancy, with a lot of pain and discharge. And then she found out the fetus has a severe genetic anomaly, Trisomy 18, that’s seriously bad. The infant has little chance of living more than a few hours, and even if it survives longer it will have massive physical and intellectual defects. Plus the pregnancy itself was so problematic and risky that Cox might not be able to have another one. No babies for her.

Texas law does not allow Cox to have an abortion. But instead of traveling to another state, she took Texas to court. And a judge agreed that she needed an abortion.

Siding with the woman, Kate Cox, who argued the procedure is necessary to preserve future fertility and protect her from undergoing a potentially dangerous birth, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said, “The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be pregnant, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking, and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice. So I will be signing the order, and it will be processed and sent out today.”

This is sensible. But this is also Texas.

The utterly corrupt attorney general of Texas threatened to prosecute anyone who helps the plaintiff in the case. Note that last line from his statement: “The TRO will expire long before the statue of limitations for violating Texas’ abortion laws expires.”

Yes this is outrageous. But it’s also revelatory.

For years the abortion criminalization movement has denied that there is ever any medical reason to terminate a pregnancy. They could get away with claiming that until Roe was overturned. Since then there have been a number of news stories about women who nearly died because they were denied an abortion. In Ms. Cox’s case, her life is not at risk but she may not be able to bring another pregnancy to term. And the fetus she carries has no future. So one has to ask what purpose is being served, what great good achieved, by forcing Ms. Cox to continue the pregnancy? There certainly is none that I can see.

The interesting question here is why Ken Paxton was so driven to step in to stop this abortion. Paxton has demonstrated time and time again he is utterly amoral, so this has nothing to do with some abstract moral principle. And it’s not as if Paxton is just giving his constituents what they want. According to a 2022 poll only 15 percent of Texans think all abortion should be banned under all circumstances. Even those who want it to be illegal most of the time are open to a variety of exceptions. This is unlikely to win Paxton any popularity awards, in other words.

I’m concluding that Paxton just gets high on power trips. If you can think of a better explanation, do chime in.

In other Republicans versus morality news, Police have recovered video of Florida GOP chair and alleged victim in rape investigation.