Jonathan P. Baird lives in Wilmot.

My mom was not the most political person. Although my grandfather used to call her “the Russian,” I never understood that. Both my parents were liberal Democrats but I wouldn’t say politics played a big role in their lives. There was, however, one political thing my mom was passionate about: she was fiercely pro-choice about abortion rights.

I remember her reaction, her joy, when the Supreme Court decided Roe v Wade. My mom had lived through the era of coat hanger abortions.

My mom died in 2010. She would have been appalled by the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, reversing Roe v Wade. But I think she might have had an even bigger reaction to the case of Kate Cox of Texas. The case perfectly captures the harm done to women by the legal perfidy of the anti-abortion movement.

Kate Cox, a 31-year-old pregnant mother of two, found out that her fetus had a diagnosis incompatible with life. She received the diagnosis of Trisomy 18, a genetic anomaly that always results in miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death very shortly after birth. Cox was over 20 weeks pregnant when she got this devastating diagnosis.

Trisomy 18 can cause severe physical pain for the mother. It can also impair the ability to have children in the future. Cox had been to the ER four times for pregnancy symptoms including severe cramps, leaking fluid and elevated vital signs. Continuing her pregnancy put Cox herself at risk. Her doctor believed in good faith that an abortion was medically necessary.

Texas is one of the 21 states that have now completely banned abortion or restricted the procedure earlier in pregnancy than the standard set by Roe v Wade. In Texas, abortion is banned after 6 weeks. Texas does have a “medical emergency” statute that went into effect after Dobbs. It allows for an abortion only if the mother has a “life-threatening” condition while pregnant or is at “severe risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”

Even in the middle of a living hell, Cox retained a lawyer, litigated her situation and a state court judge ruled she could terminate her pregnancy. However, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court. Paxton didn’t believe Cox suffered from a life-threatening physical condition. He argued she didn’t meet the exception to the abortion ban.

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Texas allows for no exception for severe fetal anomalies. Paxton’s position was that women must be forced to carry dying fetuses to term regardless of the maternal mortality risk. He wrote letters to three Texas hospitals advising them against giving Cox an abortion and threatening first-degree felony prosecution. Paxton wrote those letters after the state court judge authorized the abortion.

Texas law authorizes penalties of up to life in prison for any doctor who performs an abortion. It also allows the infamous bounty hunter penalty where anyone who aids or abets an abortion can face a $10,000 payout.

The all-Republican, elected Texas Supreme Court unanimously found that Cox didn’t fit the abortion exception even though her doctor believed she did. Apparently, Cox had to be in septic shock or dying of sepsis.

Just to get a flavor of the far-right quality of that court, consider Justice John Devine, a hardcore Christian fundamentalist who had been arrested 37 times for protesting at abortion clinics. Devine campaigned on his wife’s decision to carry a high-risk pregnancy (her seventh) to term even though the fetus had a condition that endangered his wife’s life. The baby died an hour after childbirth but his wife survived.

Cox didn’t wait for the Texas Supreme Court to issue their opinion. She left the state to receive the health care she needed. A Texas Right to Life spokesperson, Kimberlyn Schwartz, lamented that Cox could have the procedure elsewhere. She said, “We mourn the decision to take Baby Cox’s life rather than give her every chance at life.”

This case demonstrates the problem with legal exceptions to abortion bans. Lawyers will always disagree about whether the circumstances of pregnancy meet the exception especially when legal language is vague which it typically is. In another massive Texas case, Zurawski v Texas, 20 Texas women claim they have been denied medical care for their complicated pregnancies. The plaintiffs are asking for clarification of the law to help Texas physicians. The case is awaiting a decision by the Texas Supreme Court.

Cox’s situation is hardly unique. As has quickly become evident, many, many women are getting pushed into prolonging doomed pregnancies. Some of the women will die. Many women lack the financial means to leave Texas quickly. This situation is guaranteed to be played out in the states with abortion bans.

Pro-abortion rights advocate Jessica Valenti says that the pro-life movement remains intent on banning abortion in hopeless cases of fetal anomaly. Instead, they go in the opposite direction and want to do away with pre-natal testing. They claim the tests aren’t accurate. The craziness is that anti-abortion fanatics are putting women’s lives in danger. They want women to be forced to give birth to dead babies.

This is not pro-life. Forcing birth prioritizes inevitably dead babies over their mothers. The woman is reduced to a broodmare, a vessel with no say over her life.

The Dobbs decision took away an individual right that had existed for 50 years. It opened the door to state bans like Texas’s. Who are these men, whether Ken Paxton or Sam Alito, who think they know better than women and their doctors? These great legal minds have zero relationship to the women experiencing their pregnancies. Nor do they have any medical training. They don’t live with the consequences of their brilliant decisions.

Fundamentally, the struggle is about male control over women. Profound sexism joined with cruelty to produce Cox’s situation. It should be clear by now that the anti-abortion movement has no plans to compromise. They plan for a national ban. If they have the chance, they will make no state safe for women.

Republicans, you own this. The pro-choice movement must have the long-term goal of overturning Dobbs and restoring reproductive freedom in every state.