Raise Your Hand If You've Ever Had THAT Call From Your OB-GYN

Kate Cox and The Mess in Texas

Dec 13, 2023

When I read Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale almost four decades ago, it felt like a dystopian farce. For a girl like me, born and raised in the twentieth century, women were never going to be enslaved by their government and forced to procreate.

Until we were.

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It was 1999, and I was pregnant with a baby we called “Sprout.” Dan and I went in for a routine exam with my doctor. Hours later, I was back at work and got a phone call. “We need you to come back in,” an unfamiliar doctor told me. “We’re seeing choroid plexus cysts, a few little air bubbles potentially associated with a serious abnormality called Trisomy 18 otherwise known as Edward’s Syndrome.”

I opened up ‘Google’ – a newfangled thing on the computer where you could look stuff up – typed in ‘Trisomy 18’ and was terrified by the results. I called Dan. “Love,” I said, “something might be wrong with Sprout.” We cried a little over the phone, then I wiped my eyes, made the follow-up doctor’s appointment for a few days hence, and went back to work as the Dean of Students at Stanford Law School.

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By now you’ve heard of Kate Cox, the thirty-one-year-old Dallas mother of two whose OB-GYN confirmed that her fetus has Trisomy 18, “a fatal genetic condition that almost always results in miscarriage or stillbirth.” She sought a medically necessary exception to Texas’ all-but complete ban on abortion, with a note from her doctor which stated that Kate “has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from her current pregnancy that places her at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of her reproductive functions.”

The district court granted her the exception. But the Texas Supreme Court swiftly overturned it. The mother of two became the latest person to be told that her body, her life, her being a mother to two existing children who need her, and her potential to be able to have children again are all less important to the state than the potential viability of a fetus already diagnosed with a fatal genetic condition.

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Dan and I went in for the second ultrasound. My doctor was calm and friendly as he wanded my abdomen with thick gel. “Ah no,” he told us. “These bubbles are normal. Typically they get absorbed into the brain. Highly unlikely to be Trisomy 18. We’ll do follow up tests to be sure, but I’m not worried.” I could have thrown myself at his face and kissed him.

Indeed the further testing proved negative.

Sprout became Sawyer, my now 24 year old son.

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But Kate Cox’s fetus is not going to become a person. Trisomy 18 will cause it to die inside of her or to live for only few days after birth if born alive. Meanwhile Kate’s own health will be at risk as she carries this pregnancy further.

The news indicates that Kate fled for somewhere to rid her body of this fetus developing in her womb. (I’m sure the Texas authorities will try figure out where and to whom.) It sounds like she’ll get the health care she needs. But then what? Will the authorities track her down and imprison her for what she’s done? Will she be taken away from her two children? Will she always be on the run?

We don’t know.

What I do know is this ain’t no dystopian farce. It’s America.

And what of the women lacking the resources, network, and support to get her out of there? What do they do? And what are WE going to do about this.

🙋🏽‍♀️ I’m running for Congress to help restore a woman’s right to choose, and to fight for bodily autonomy and I need your support. Please. It shouldn’t cost so much to run, but it does, and I’m running against nine, count ‘em NINE guys and no other women. Donate here.

🤗 Here’s a hug for all the people who have ever had scary news while pregnant.

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