podcast final

Before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2021, there were over 50,000 abortions in Texas. In 2023, there were only 40. The case of Kate Cox highlights the restrictions on abortion in Texas. Despite having a fatal diagnosis for her fetus and risking her own health, Cox was denied an emergency abortion by the Texas Supreme Court. Trisomy 18 was the condition that made the abortion medically necessary. Unsafe abortions are a leading cause of maternal death, and restrictions on abortion access put women at risk. The laws in Texas are vague and doctors fear legal consequences for providing abortions. Abortion restrictions deny women the right to choose and violate their rights to necessary healthcare. The main issue is not about wanting abortions frequently, but about having the right to choose what is best for women and their families. Abortion bans deny choice and put people at risk, violating the positive liberties that feminists have fought for. Before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2021, there were more than 50,000 abortions in the state of Texas. But in 2023, there are only 40, according to Texas Health and Human Services. Hi, I'm Brianna. I'm Jasmine. And I'm Mason. And today we'll be talking about abortions and politics through the lens of Kate Cox. So, have you guys heard about the Kate Cox case? So, I recently had done some reading, and I read that she was denied an emergency abortion by the Texas government, even though her fetus had a fatal diagnosis and without the abortion, Kate's health could have really suffered. And according to a news article from the Center for Reproductive Rights, Cox went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court with valid medical reasons, but still got denied. Wow, that's crazy. The court claimed that her case didn't even qualify for an emergency exemption. To get the required medical treatment that she needed, Kate had to leave Texas to receive adequate health care. Okay, so what made Cox's doctors think that she needed a medically necessary abortion in the first place? Well, not only did the baby have trisomy 18, which is why they considered lethal, Cox was also at risk of many fertility issues, including uterine rupture and infection, if she carried the baby to term. And even if she went through with giving birth, the baby was only expected to survive at most a week, if it even survived pregnancy. And Cox says that she wants more kids, so risking her fertility was not an option for her. And since the baby still had cardiac activity, it was still considered alive according to Texas law, so she couldn't abort the baby despite its life expectancy being so short. So what exactly is trisomy 18? What does the baby have that would necessitate that she needs to get an abortion? According to a paper I read written about the anatomy of trisomy 18, it's a chromosomal condition that is widely considered lethal and has a less than 50% survival rate after one week and less than 10% after one year. But according to Cox's doctor, her best case scenario was at most a week with her baby. And in Cox's ultrasound, they found the baby already had several symptoms, like a twisted spine, clubbed feet, hernias, and an irregular skull and heart development. They also say in the paper that trisomy 18 detected through ultrasound, like Cox, has a smaller chance of survival. Even though she shouldn't have to, at least she was able to leave the state and get an abortion. In an interview on CBS, Cox says... Yeah, but a lot of people who do need abortions aren't able to leave the state like Kate because they don't have the finances needed to leave. And having to leave to get an abortion costs a lot of money. They have to be able to take days off of work, which many can't because they need that money. Yeah, they also have to pay for transportation, which could cost a lot of money depending on how far they have to go. Since many people can't afford that, they have to turn to unsafe abortions. According to an article I read done by Lisa Haddad and Nawal Noor, worldwide, 42 million abortions are done, and out of that, 20 million are done unsafely. Okay, but what exactly classifies an abortion as unsafe, do you know? An unsafe abortion is usually when a patient gets it done in an unsterile environment. And in many of these cases, the person who is doing this procedure is not qualified to do so. Another way people will try to have abortions is by drinking toxins or causing direct injuries to themselves. Unsafe abortions are the leading cause of maternal death. According to the article previously mentioned, it says that this is easily preventable by having less restrictive laws. When abortions were restricted starting in the 60s, the percentage of maternal deaths caused by abortions increased until around 1989, when restrictions ended and the percentage decreased. But specifically in the United States, the amount of deaths from unsafe abortions went down drastically after the ruling of Roe v. Wade in 1973. So, according to Dr. Caitlin Moyer in her journal article, Why Restricting Access to Abortion Damages Wounds Health, the death rate hovered between 0 to 2 every year until the turn of the millennium after the ruling in 1973. And as abortion in America is increasingly put under strain, we can probably expect to see more people trying to have unsafe abortions, or, like Kate Cox, having to have an abortion in another state. Of course, the restriction of abortion access does not correlate with the decrease of total abortions. Instead, it results in a spike in illegal abortions. That only puts more women at risk. Abortion when done legally is completely safe. Ultimately, what that means is that abortion restrictions, like in Texas and other states are trying to do, only really serve to place unnecessary risk on women. This is something that Cox's attorneys emphasized in their court filing. In item 149, they say that preventing people from gaining access to abortions for things that risk their life or health violates their rights to equality, like their ability to access necessary health care. Another thing emphasized by the plaintiffs is the fact that the laws are so vague that it de facto completely prevents any access to abortion at all, because doctors are scared. Quoting paraphrased testimony from Drs. Gopp in item 121, many doctors are confused about when they can provide abortions. They are frightened because they do not understand the law. Doctors are afraid of committing a felony or losing their certification. Yeah, and going off of that, the main problem with Cox's case is that Texas never really defines what a medically necessary abortion is. So physicians are hesitant to give abortions because of fear of retaliation. I read in a court filing that Texas never really clearly states what is considered a medical emergency. They only say it has to be life-threatening or have serious risk of impairment to majorly bodily function, which is literally Cox's case. And no doctor knows what the law will consider a major bodily function. They're going to refuse to clarify. It's so vague that they can get away with basically anything. So Cox's doctor questions if fertility even is a major bodily function. Yeah, that was one of her issues, that if she had kept the fetus, then that would affect her fertility. Exactly, and that's why doctors are so reluctant to give an abortion, even if they believe it's necessary, especially since they could lose their medical license, be put in prison for up to 99 years, or be charged with at least a $100,000 fine. Wow. And doctors know that it would not be hard for prosecutors to find a physician willing to testify that an abortion was not necessary. In the same interview mentioned earlier, Cox's attorney, Molly Duane, says... And I think what that makes clear to me, and the fact that the attorney general fought it as hard as he did, is that the exception in Texas doesn't exist at all. How is it that we have the right to be able to get an abortion for nearly 49 years, and now we have to fight to get basic health care? In Texas, they state that a woman can only obtain an abortion if it's an emergency. But even then, they deny necessary medical care. While they claim to care for the fetus's life, they don't care about the woman, who is carrying the fetus, life at all. The main issue with abortion politics now is not that women want to go have an abortion every other week just because they got pregnant, like some people think, but we just want the right to be able to choose what is right for us and our families. There's so much that goes into having a baby, that even if it is perfectly healthy, some women just don't have the resources to provide for that baby. And most of the pro-life advocators don't care about the baby after it's born, it's just the need to control women's bodies. And that really brings us to the crux of the issue, isn't it? I mean, abortion bans deny choice, and they put people at risk. The right to choose when, where, and with whom they can have a child or even start a family. It's a complete violation of the positive liberties that feminists have always been fighting for for so long. The freedom to do, the freedom to have their own finances, to earn the same wage, to have the right to vote. I mean, the ability for women to decide for themselves anything. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in. There's so much more to talk about, but we'll leave that for the next time. See you then.