Earlier this month, a Texas woman ended the life of her unborn child, who had Trisomy 18 and wasn’t expected to live past birth.
Kate Cox is the Texas mother of two who took her case to the state Supreme Court in an effort to obtain an abortion based on medical needs. Her appeal was blocked because her life was not in danger (the stipulation for legal abortion in Texas), and she crossed state lines to get the abortion for her 21-week baby in utero.
The case has divided the country, as pro-abortion advocates lament the “cruelty” of abortion restrictions and pro-life supporters share stories of children who have lived for years beyond birth with Trisomy 18 and other conditions like it.
“Meet my incompatible-with-life daughter, Bella,” wrote former Sen. Rick Santorum. “Doctors put her on hospice at 10 days old.”
Santorum’s daughter is now 15.
As a mother of two, I can genuinely imagine the terror Cox experienced when doctors delivered the news of a fatal, genetic condition. The anxiety of walking into the doctor’s office, a nurse preparing to swirl cold gel onto your protruding belly and peek inside via ultrasound, is always there.
“Does everything look good?” a mother asks immediately before a visual even pops up on the screen.
For Cox, that anxiety so many feel became a reality when she got the difficult diagnosis.
She could bear out the pregnancy and wait for the baby to possibly pass away in utero or maybe shortly after
