Ken Paxton issues threat after judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, can get an abortion
The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has threatened to prosecute any doctor who provides an abortion to Kate Cox, a woman with a non-viable pregnancy, advising hospitals to ignore a court order issued on Thursday allowing her to get the procedure.
The rightwing Paxton issued the warning to three Houston-area hospitals after a Texas judge ruled this week that Cox, a pregnant woman with a lethal fetal diagnosis, may obtain an abortion under the narrow medical exceptions offered by the state bans.
In a brazen dismissal of the court’s decision, Paxton wrote that the judge’s order “will not insulate hospitals, doctors or anyone else from civil and criminal liability”.
Paxton also wrote that the hospital where Cox obtains an abortion “may be liable for negligent credentialing the physician” who performs the procedure.
That’s what protests originally were for. The reason they’re called demonstrations is because you’re demonstrating the number of people that will be armed and angry if the people in power ignore you. Without that implied threat, they’re at most mildly inconvenient. It’s meant to be a final check and balance, if you fuck up badly enough, the people beat you to death and burn your house down.
It should never have to come to that, but taking it off the table entirely renders the first step a bit pointless.