AUSTIN – The Texas Supreme Court rejected a mother of two’s request to get an abortion under the state’s restrictive ban, putting a spotlight on how women deal with pregnancy complications that can result in potentially life-threatening issues.
Kate Cox’s fetus was reportedly diagnosed with trisomy 18, a rare chromosomal abnormality that can lead to severe heart, neural and digestive disabilities if the baby survives the pregnancy, NBC News reported.
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Justices said Cox did not qualify for an abortion in Texas. The denial comes after she reportedly had four emergency room visits, elevated vital signs, and risks of a uterine rupture. Doctors also say her ability to have more children could be in jeopardy.
Cox’s lawyers said Monday afternoon that she had left the state to get an abortion but did not specify where or when the procedure was occurring. The Center for Reproductive Rights told the Texas Supreme Court that it intended to continue litigating her case, despite Cox no longer seeking an abortion within Texas. A few hours later, the court issued its ruling, overturning the temporary restraining order.
In Monday’s ruling, the justices said the law does not “ask the doctor to wait until the mother is within an inch of death or her bodily impairment is fully manifest or practically irreversible. The exception does not mandate that a doctor in a true emergency await consultation with other doctors who may not be available. Rather, the exception is predicated on a doctor’s acting within the zone of reasonable medical judgment, which is what doctors do every day.”
How ruling was determined
Since the ruling was a per curiam opinion, which means “from the court,” there were no dissents.
Amy Starnes, the Director of Public Affairs for the Supreme Court of Texas, explained the ruling to KPRC 2′s Erica Ponder Thursday.
“It’s just basically per curiam opinion and the words are Latin, which just means ‘from the court,’ essentially meaning from the court as a whole,” Starnes said. “Because no one dissented, all of them essentially agree with it. However, this per curiam is a little bit different than other per curiams in that there’s a line at the end that says that two specific justices agree or they concur in granting relief. So basically, they’re saying they concur or they agree with the outcome, not necessarily the words in the opinion.”
Here are the Texas Supreme Court Justices in Cox’s controversial case:
Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht
Nathan L. Hecht is the 27th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. He is the longest-serving member of the court in Texas history and the longest-tenured Texas judge in active service. According to the Texas Judicial Branch’s website, Hecht has been elected to the court seven times, first in 1988 as a Justice, and in 2014 and 2020 as Chief Justice.
Before Hecht became a justice, he was a partner in the Locke firm in Dallas. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from Yale University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Southern Methodist University School of Law.
Justice Debra Lehrmann
Justice Debra Lehrmann is the Senior Justice on the Supreme Court of Texas and the court’s longest-serving woman justice in Texas history. With a total of almost 35 years of judicial experience, she was a trial judge in Tarrant County for 23 years before her appellate service. She received her undergraduate degree from The University of Texas, her law degree from UT School of Law, and her LL.M. from Duke University.
Lehrmann served as the inaugural chair of the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section and is a prior chair of the Family Law Section of the ABA. She is a commissioner on the Uniform Law Commission, a member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, a charter member of the Tarrant County Bar Foundation, an emeritus member and past president of the Lloyd Lochridge Inn of Court in Austin, and an emeritus member of the Eldon B. Mahon Inn of Court in Fort Worth.
Lehrmann was re-elected to her position in November 2022 to a term that expires Dec. 31, 2028.
Justice Jeff Boyd
Jeff Boyd joined the court in 2012 and was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to fill Justice Dale Wainwright’s unexpired term after Wainwright resigned. Boyd was the governor’s chief of staff since September 2011. Before that, he was Gov. Perry’s general counsel. He is a graduate of Abilene Christian University and earned his law degree from Pepperdine University. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Thomas M. Reavley on the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
Boyd spent 15 years with Thompson & Knight L.L.P. in two stints, leaving first in 2000 to join then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn as deputy attorney general for general litigation and continuing with Attorney General Greg Abbott. He rejoined Thompson & Knight as senior partner in 2003. Boyd has been a Supreme Court Advisory Committee member since 2003.
Boyd was re-elected in November 2020 to a term that ends Dec. 31, 2026.
Justice John Phillip Devine
Justice John Devine was first elected to the Supreme Court of Texas in November 2012. He previously served for seven years as judge of the 190th State District Court in Harris County and for nine years as an appointed special judge for the Harris County Justice of the Peace courts. A native of Indiana, Justice Devine attended Ball State University, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and marketing.
After graduation, Devine became a Texan and entered the corporate world of Shell Oil Co. in Houston as an analyst and later worked in various corporate and project-oriented positions. While at Shell, he was accepted by South Texas College of Law, graduating with a juris doctorate in 1986. He was elected in 1995 and re-elected in 1998 to the district court. Devine was also a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association, the Board of Civil District Judge Mass Torts Committee, the Board of Civil District Judges, the Harris County Juvenile Justice Charter School Board and the Harris County Juvenile Board. His current term expires on Dec. 31, 2024.
Justice Jimmy Blacklock
Houston native Justice Jimmy Blacklock was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in January 2018 by Abbott. Before that, he served as Abbott’s General Counsel and in the Attorney General’s Office under then-AG Abbott. While at the AG’s office, he handled appeals and trials of constitutional cases in state and federal courts involving matters such as federalism, religious liberty, and the separation of powers.
Earlier in his career, Blacklock was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and he worked in private practice in Houston and Austin. He clerked for Judge Jerry Smith on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas and a J.D. from Yale Law School. His term ends on Dec. 31, 2024.
Justice Brett Busby
Justice Brett Busby was appointed to the court by Abbott in February 2019, confirmed unanimously by the Texas Senate, and elected to a full term in November 2020. An experienced appellate litigator, Justice Busby was a partner at the Bracewell firm in Houston and served on the Fourteenth Court of Appeals for six years before joining the Supreme Court. After graduating from Duke University and Columbia Law School, he served as a law clerk to multiple justices, including John Paul Stevens.
Busby previously served on the Texas Multi-District Litigation Panel and chaired the State Bar Committee on Pattern Jury Charges (Business, Consumer, Insurance, and Employment). His term ends on Dec. 31, 2026.
Justice Jane Bland
Justice Jane Bland has served in the state judiciary for 25 years and on the Supreme Court of Texas since 2019. Before her service on the court, she was a justice on the First Court of Appeals for 15 years and six years as a State District Judge. Bland chairs the Judicial Commission on Mental Health. She is also the court’s liaison to the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. She is the deputy liaison to the Court’s Rules Advisory Committee. She is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Federal Civil Rules for the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Bland earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. Following law school, she was a clerk for the Honorable Thomas Gibbs Gee on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before her appointment to the court, she was a partner at Vinson & Elkins LLP in Houston.
Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle
Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott in October 2020 and elected to a full term in 2022. She is a native of El Paso, where she grew up and attended Stephen F. Austin High School. Huddle earned her undergraduate degree in political science at Stanford University and earned her law degree at the University of Texas School of Law.
In 2011, Huddle was appointed by former Gov. Rick Perry to serve as a justice on the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas. She was then elected to that office in 2012. During her tenure at the First Court of Appeals, she reportedly authored more than 400 reasoned majority opinions and worked with her colleagues to dispose of many hundreds more appeals. Justice Huddle returned to Baker Botts as a partner in 2017, resuming her practice in commercial litigation and appeals. She served as the Partner-in-Charge of the firm’s Houston office beginning in 2018.
Justice Evan A. Young
Justice Evan A. Young was appointed to the Supreme Court of Texas in November 2021 by Abbott. He has clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and served as Counsel to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, during which time he spent nearly a year based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, helping lead the U.S. Government’s Rule of Law mission.
Young, who served as a member of the Texas Judicial Council from 2017 until his appointment to the Supreme Court, is a former chair of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Texas Regional Office, a member of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law. He received his Bachelor of Arts degrees from Duke University and Oxford University, and his law degree from Yale Law School. He is a graduate of Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio and now resides in Austin.
Young was subsequently elected in November 2022 to a term that expires Dec. 31, 2028.
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