First Lady Jill Biden has invited Kate Cox — the Texas woman who sued the state so she could kill her disabled preborn baby closer to home — to the State of the Union address as her guest in March. Cox has accepted that invitation.
Though Cox had been willing to take the risks associated with her pregnancy for a baby who was assumed to be ‘healthy,’ once her baby received a diagnosis of Trisomy 18, she suddenly claimed that she needed an abortion to save her own health. Though children with Trisomy 18 have long been labeled “incompatible with life,” in recent years that label has been removed and children have shown they can live longer when given proper medical care. However, Cox saw a healthy baby as worth any potential pregnancy-related risks and a disabled baby as unworthy of those risks. She specifically asked in her lawsuit for the ability to kill her preborn baby through a D&E abortion, which would dismember the baby limb from limb — and argued that this was better for the child than being born alive and intact and being held and cared for.
“On Sunday, the president and first lady spoke to Kate Cox, who was forced to go to court to seek permission for the care she needed for a nonviable pregnancy that threatened her life, that threatened her life,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre in a press briefing last week. “They thanked her for her courage in sharing her story and speaking out about the impact of the extreme abortion ban in Texas.” She added, “Her story is incredibly powerful, devastating. And it speaks to the moment that we are in now, when we talk about women having the right to make these deeply personal decisions about their health care that was taken away by the Supreme Court.”
But Jean-Pierre’s statement is not correct. If Cox’s life had truly been in jeopardy — and if a doctor had stated that her life was at risk — Cox would have been able to abort her baby in Texas. Instead, she lost her case and traveled to pro-abortion New Mexico to have the abortion. The majority of preborn children are currently protected from abortion in Texas; however, the state law has an exception that states preborn babies can be intentionally and directly killed in the womb if their mother’s life is at risk (though this intentional killing is not truly medically necessary).
Last year, Biden invited Amanda Zurawski, who claimed she had been denied a medically-necessary abortion, to the State of the Union. However, Zurawski had experienced preterm labor as the result of an incompetent cervix. Abortion is not a treatment for an incompetent cervix. The Mayo Clinic lists multiple treament options — progesterone supplementation, cervical cerclage, a pessary — but intentionally killing the preborn child is not one of them. While doctors should not have sent Zurawski home without proper treatment, she was eventually able to deliver her baby, who was born too early to survive. Preterm delivery in an emergency situation like Zurawski’s is not considered an induced abortion and is not prohibited by any pro-life laws, because the intent of such an early delivery is not to directly cause the death of the child.
Notably not invited to the State of the Union? Women who chose life for their babies with Trisomy 18, including Elisabeth Scott. Scott’s pregnancy mirrored Cox’s, however, she ensured that both she and her daughter received proper medical care. Little Brianna is now four and her story can be read here.
Other mothers have said no to abortion when facing a diagnosis of Trisomy 18 as well — but of course, none of these truly heroic women who fought for the equal dignity and treatment of their children will be invited to the State of the Union, either.
Jennifer Thenhaus chose life for her daughter Melody, who is now 10. Jessica Morales is mom to Andrew, who is now three. Jessie is the mom of Abel, who lived for a few months with Trisomy 18. Karen Santorum is mom to Bella, who is now 15 years old; Jesi Smith is mom to Faith, who is also 15.
Families of children with Trisomy 18 were outraged over the media’s coverage of Cox’s story, speaking out against it and sharing their own stories to show that their children’s lives are valuable, have purpose, and should not be thrown away — and they are human beings who don’t deserve dismemberment. But the dignity of preborn children isn’t likely to be honored at the State of the Union. Instead, it will be the intentional death of a child by the so-called “right” to abortion that is highlighted and applauded.
