Post Spreads Misleading Information About Texas Abortion Case
SciCheck Digest
Kate Cox petitioned to be allowed to have an abortion in Texas to “protect her life, health, and future fertility,” after receiving news that her baby was unlikely to survive, according to her court filing. A popular Instagram post misrepresented Cox’s specific case and also made misleading claims about trisomy 18, the condition affecting her pregnancy.
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Abortion is banned in Texas by multiple laws. Texas law contains exceptions for mothers with emergency medical conditions. But according to some doctors and health policy experts, it can be difficult to determine in practice whether a situation qualifies for an exception or to find a doctor or hospital administrators willing to make that judgment given the legal risks involved.
Doctors also have argued that it’s not possible or desirable to establish a formulaic definition of a medical emergency given the complexities and nuances affecting each case.
Even , when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, the procedure was already largely banned in Texas. The state a law in 2021 that abortions after “cardiac activity” was detected in an embryo, of gestation, with an exception only for a medical emergency.
