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Prime Republicans evaded questions on a Texas Supreme Court docket ruling barring a lady with a life-threatening being pregnant from getting an abortion, the most recent high-profile case arising because of severely restrictive abortion legal guidelines across the nation.
“I’m a federal official so I really don’t have a comment,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who as soon as served as a decide on the Texas Supreme Court docket, mentioned when requested concerning the ruling on Tuesday.
Requested if he believed the ruling was truthful to the lady, 31-year-old Kate Cox, Cornyn mentioned: “It’s state law, it’s really not my role.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who’s up for reelection subsequent 12 months, additionally declined to reply questions concerning the matter, instructing reporters to name his workplace as an alternative. A request for remark to Cruz’s workplace was not returned.
Cox filed her lawsuit final week whereas 20 weeks pregnant after her physician knowledgeable her that her fetus was unlikely to make it to time period or survive lengthy exterior the womb. The being pregnant would threat her life and skill to hold future youngsters, docs warned her.
A decrease courtroom decide initially dominated in Cox’s favor, however Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton urged the state’s Supreme Court docket to intervene. Nevertheless, simply hours earlier than the ruling on Monday, Cox’s attorneys introduced she had traveled out of state to acquire the time-sensitive process.
The lawsuit follows the U.S. Supreme Court docket ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade final 12 months, which allowed Texas and different GOP-controlled states to crack down on entry to abortion. Texas legislation now prohibits abortions past six weeks of being pregnant.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a uncommon GOP supporter of abortion rights, referred to as the Texas Supreme Court docket ruling towards Cox “a terrible decision” on Tuesday.
“It’s just inconceivable to me,” Collins added.
Collins was closely criticized by pro-choice teams after she voted to verify two Supreme Court docket justices nominated by former President Donald Trump: Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, who went on to overturn Roe after almost 50 years of binding precedent.
Different Republicans ducked questions concerning the Texas ruling and reiterated merely that they personally help abortion exceptions for lifetime of the mom, although that didn’t seem like the case in Cox’s Texas go well with.
“I have not looked into that, but I do believe in the life of the mother. I’ve made that exception previously,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) mentioned.
Texas Rep. Roger Williams (R) mentioned it’s a singular case. “I don’t really know, candidly, what I think of it right now. I go back to being pro-life with the only exception being the death of the mother,” Williams instructed HuffPost.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a staunch abortion opponent who leads the Nationwide Republican Senatorial Committee, emphasised that Republicans working for workplace have to make it clear they “do not support a federal ban on all abortions” and that “we must have exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.”
The passage of restrictive abortion legal guidelines, together with a proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks nationwide, sparked an electoral backlash for the GOP within the 2022 midterm elections in addition to in a number of state referendums. It’s a problem that can once more be entrance and heart within the 2024 election, with extra state referendums looking for to guard abortion entry on the horizon.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned on Tuesday that Republicans will need to emulate Texas’ strategy to abortion nationally in the event that they acquire management of the Senate subsequent 12 months.
“This is the next step in the Republican agenda on abortion,” Warren instructed HuffPost. “If the Republicans can get control nationally, they can push those laws all across the country. The woman in Texas was able to go to another state to get an abortion. If the Republicans have their way, only people who can afford to leave the country will have an option to get the medical care they need.”
Earlier this 12 months, a lady who had sued Texas for denying her an abortion whereas going through being pregnant problems appeared at a Senate listening to and singled out Cornyn and Cruz over their state’s abortion legislation.
“I would like for them to know that what happened to me… it’s a direct result of the policies that they support,” Amanda Zurawski mentioned on the April listening to. “I nearly died on their watch… as a result of what happened to me, I may have been robbed of the opportunity to have children in the future.”
Arthur Delaney contributed reporting.
Assist HuffPost
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