A Pro-Life Response to the Tragic Case in Texas

Kate Cox is 20 weeks pregnant and — after receiving a devastating life-limiting diagnosis for her unborn child — wants an abortion. Cox’s baby has trisomy 18, a severe genetic condition from which most babies die in utero or shortly after birth.

A Texas district court said Cox could have an abortion despite state bans, but the state Supreme Court temporarily blocked her from doing so.

Cox’s lawyers argue that because of the state’s post-Dobbs abortion laws, Cox’s health and “future fertility” have been jeopardized. She will “have to wait until her baby dies inside her or carry the pregnancy to term, at which point she will be forced to have a third C-section, only to watch her baby suffer until death.”

In giving the pro-life response to this tragic case, I’d like to point you to Nicole LeBlanc, who faced a similarly devastating life-limiting diagnosis when she learned that her twin girls were conjoined. Like Cox, LeBlanc needed a delivery by C-section, one that would have lasting consequences for future pregnancies. And like Cox, LeBlanc knew that her children were unlikely to survive long after birth. Here’s what she had to say about the case:

LeBlanc notes that Cox’s pregnancy has been “deemed high risk for her, high risk for the baby.” But, speaking from one mom who has been in this situation to another, she says: “If mom is in distress, if baby is in distress, the proper protocol would be to deliver the baby. . . . Abortion is never the solution to a baby who has an abnormality.”

She asks: “How are you going to choose to honor your baby, Kate? How are you going to bury a baby who’s been dismembered and crushed, whose skull has been crushed, whose heart has been stopped? How are you going to honor that baby? How can you make little, tiny footprints?”

She continues: “Being a mom to two babies who are no longer here is the most difficult thing I have ever had to go through in my entire life. But I can sleep well at night knowing that I did the right thing. And this is not to brag but my children died naturally, peacefully. They were not harmed.”