Kate Cox announces pregnancy during DNC roll call : NPR

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Kate Cox, a Texas woman who sued her state when she was denied an abortion there, announced that she is pregnant during the DNC’s delegate roll call.

Cox was forced to leave the state to access an abortion in December 2023, after her fetus was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 or Edwards Syndrome, a condition with extremely low chances of survival. Abortion is banned in Texas unless a patient’s life or major bodily function is at risk, and the Texas Supreme Court ruled at the time that her lawyers had not proven her eligibility under the narrow exception.

“When I got pregnant, doctors told us our baby would never survive, and if I didn’t get an abortion, it would put a future pregnancy at risk,” Cox said Tuesday. “But Trump didn’t care, and because of his abortion bans, I had to flee my home.”

“Today because I found a way to access abortion care. I am pregnant again,” she continued. “And my baby is due in January, just in time to see Kamala Harris sworn in as president of the United States.”

As NPR’s Selena Simons-Duffin has reported, doctors in Texas say they don’t know how to interpret the state’s limited exception, and they run the risk of fines, loss of medical license or prison time if they make the wrong call.

➡️ MORE: The abortion debate is headed to the ballot box. Here’s where voters will decide

Cox and her lawyers argued in court that her future fertility was at risk if she carried the pregnancy to term.

“If she has to be induced, there is a risk of uterine rupture,” Cox’s lawyer Molly Duane told NPR. “If she has to have a repeat C-section, there is a risk of, again, uterine rupture and hysterectomy and she won’t be able to try again for more children in the future, which she desperately wants to do.”