Attorney General James Leads Multistate Coalition Condemning Texas Supreme Court Decision Upholding the State’s Dangerous Abortion Ban

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James and a coalition of 11 attorneys general released the following statement after the Texas Supreme Court denied abortion access to Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose health and life were at risk as a result of a lethal fetal diagnosis. Ms. Cox was forced to travel out of state to receive abortion care. 

“No one should be forced to fight in court and leave their home state just to receive the health care they need. As this case shows, abortion bans pose dangerous health and safety threats wherever they are enacted. Decisions about abortion care should be made between patients and their doctors, not politicians. We will continue to fight to ensure everyone has the freedom to make their own reproductive health care decisions.”  

On December 8, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed Ms. Cox to obtain an abortion under the exception to the state’s abortion bans permitting abortions in cases of risks to the pregnant person’s life. On December 11, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s decision, preventing Ms. Cox from seeking an abortion, even though she had learned that her fetus had a fatal genetic condition and her doctor had testified that continuing to carry the pregnancy would jeopardize her life, her health, and her future fertility. The court found the legislative exception to Texas’s abortion bans did not encompass Ms. Cox’s condition because she had not shown it was sufficiently “life threatening.” 

Joining Attorney General James in condemning the Texas Supreme Court’s decision are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

Attorney General James has been a national leader in protecting abortion access. Earlier in December, she obtained a court order stopping a militant anti-abortion group from blocking access to reproductive health care clinics in 13 counties across the state. In October, she led a multistate coalition urging the Supreme Court to protect access to medication abortion nationwide after leading the same coalition in filing a series of briefs in the district court and the court of appeals. In September, Attorney General James took action to protect abortion access at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. In March, Attorney General James, together with Governor Hochul, sent a letter to the CEOs of Walgreens (owner of Duane Reade), Rite Aid, and CVS to demand answers about the companies’ plans to make the abortion medication mifepristone available in New York state. Attorney General James has also fought to preserve access to abortion care in medical emergencies, leading a series of briefs in support of the United States Department of Health and Human Services interpretation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Following the Supreme Court’s decision to end Roe v. Wade, Attorney General James launched a pro bono legal hotline to provide legal support to patients and healthcare providers nationwide. Prior to the fall of Roe, Attorney General James helped lead coalitions of attorneys general to fight restrictive abortion bans in Arizona, Indiana, and Mississippi.