In Texas, Kate Cox, a Dallas-area woman, left the state to get an abortion after the state Supreme Court blocked a lower-court ruling from earlier this month that would have allowed her to get an emergency abortion in Texas under the state’s medical exception, the Washington Post reports. Cox sought an abortion after learning that her fetus had a fatal genetic condition and that carrying the pregnancy to term could jeopardize her future fertility. The case is the first instance of an adult pregnant woman asking a court for permission to terminate her pregnancy under an abortion ban since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973. The landmark ruling was overturned in 2022.
Outside of Texas, abortion access issues are in legal limbo in three states, Reason reports. In New Mexico, where abortion is legal, the state Supreme Court is considering whether individual cities and counties can pass local abortion bans and restrictions, after two cities and two counties banned the shipment of anything used to perform an abortion. The case could reverberate beyond New Mexico, since the city and county bans in question all cite the federal Comstock Act., a 1873 law that bans the mailing of obscene items, which would include instruments used in abortions. In Arizona, a near-total ban on abortion comes before the court tomorrow, along with a ban on abortions that take place in later pregnancy. The case in Wyoming stems from whether abortion counts as health care. A court in Teton County, Wyoming, is hearing the matter this week. The State Supreme Court has been asked to determine whether they can intervene, after the Teton County court ruled in June that they could not.