Another Outrage from Ken Paxton

Posted on by

The story thus far: Kate Cox is a Texan who very much wants babies. But she’s been going through a terrible pregnancy, with a lot of pain and discharge. And then she found out the fetus has a severe genetic anomaly, Trisomy 18, that’s seriously bad. The infant has little chance of living more than a few hours, and even if it survives longer it will have massive physical and intellectual defects. Plus the pregnancy itself was so problematic and risky that Cox might not be able to have another one. No babies for her.

Texas law does not allow Cox to have an abortion. But instead of traveling to another state, she took Texas to court. And a judge agreed that she needed an abortion.

Siding with the woman, Kate Cox, who argued the procedure is necessary to preserve future fertility and protect her from undergoing a potentially dangerous birth, Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said, “The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be pregnant, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability, is shocking, and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice. So I will be signing the order, and it will be processed and sent out today.”

This is sensible. But this is also Texas.

The utterly corrupt attorney general of Texas threatened to prosecute anyone who helps the plaintiff in the case. Note that last line from his statement: “The TRO will expire long before the statue of limitations for violating Texas’ abortion laws expires.”

Yes this is outrageous. But it’s also revelatory.

For years the abortion criminalization movement has denied that there is ever any medical reason to terminate a pregnancy. They could get away with claiming that until Roe was overturned. Since then there have been a number of news stories about women who nearly died because they were denied an abortion. In Ms. Cox’s case, her life is not at risk but she may not be able to bring another pregnancy to term. And the fetus she carries has no future. So one has to ask what purpose is being served, what great good achieved, by forcing Ms. Cox to continue the pregnancy? There certainly is none that I can see.

The interesting question here is why Ken Paxton was so driven to step in to stop this abortion. Paxton has demonstrated time and time again he is utterly amoral, so this has nothing to do with some abstract moral principle. And it’s not as if Paxton is just giving his constituents what they want. According to a 2022 poll only 15 percent of Texans think all abortion should be banned under all circumstances. Even those who want it to be illegal most of the time are open to a variety of exceptions. This is unlikely to win Paxton any popularity awards, in other words.

I’m concluding that Paxton just gets high on power trips. If you can think of a better explanation, do chime in.

In other Republicans versus morality news, Police have recovered video of Florida GOP chair and alleged victim in rape investigation.

10 thoughts on “Another Outrage from Ken Paxton”

  1. "I’m concluding that Paxton just gets high on power trips. If you can think of a better explanation, do chime in."

    He hates women?

    3

  2. My explanation is not better than yours. "The cruelty is the point." In particular, the power trip that he gets high on is dominance that inflicts a high level of torment, and the chance to work that out on a single, identifiable individual target was just irresistible.

    2

  3. Right-wingers think they can never be wrong. How dare this uppity woman talk back to the almighty Attorney General. IOW a power trip.

    1

  4. Travis County is Austin, TX, one of the most populous counties in TX. (About 1.25 million). So it may be that for Ken Paxton, it's about the "real" Texas telling the city-slicker Democrats in a red state that they are second-class citizens who have been getting too uppity. It may also be that Paxton is serving notice on the courts that the judicial system is inferior to the A/G in Texas. The larger message being a warning for judges not to challenge the legislature or the governor with adverse rulings.

    Ken Paxton is still in trouble with DOJ over securities fraud. He.  has a motive to undermine the courts. He's not alone there – we may be surprised by the facts in the J6 case, particularly the level of involvement by members of Congress. Strictly to cover their own behinds, highly placed Republicans are undermining public confidence in the process. (Which isn't perfect.) No Republican (that I've heard) is calling for all prisoners in federal custody to be freed – what I see is a demand for blanket absolution for privileged people. And the GOP will be happy to select who has the privilege.

    2

  5. Off Topic: The gag orders are back in place and intact. The DC gag order doesn't include Jack Smith. Monday is the final day of the NY civil trial – with Trump the final witness and under a gag order. I predict fireworks. 

    In the DC J6 case, Trump appealed the tightly worded decision by Judge Chutkin that the former president is not a king and he must answer in a court of law for any crimes he's accused of. Trump replied yesterday in a filing with the court that pending the decision of the appeal, Chutkin no longer has authority over Trump and can no proceed with the pre-trial meetings that keep the case on schedule for March. Jack Smith has to reply (I think) by tomorrow and then Trump has a few days. The judge will decide if Trump can declare "You're not the boss of me!" to a DC judge.

    In my experience, if anybody else tried what Trump is trying, they'd be in pre-trial custody. I threatened to defy my judge once. My public defender was pretty frank about how it would have ended. Trump is (IMO) desperate to prevent the trial from happening before the election. I think Trump expects the judge will blink first. So far, she hasn't.

    2

  6. Republicans want to be lawless dictator bullies like Trump, and will push and push and push for this unless institutions push back.

    2

  7. Her life is at risk. Look here. Scroll down to the last section, headed "They Cannot Understand The Agony Of Making Such Decisions."

    (I've been reading & writing about Israel/Palestine. Severe shortage of fks here. And it crosses my mind that the Texas Republicans are not so very different from the misogynistic terrorists of Hamas. I feel like I've watching a James Tiptree story played out in real life, and I wd rather be anywhere else.)

    1

  9. All I can think of is the Terry Schiavo case.  Politicians trying to play God without the credentials.  

    Never should people be elected that are of this type.  Even for dog catcher.  A Texas sized mistake.

    2

  10. Applicable to the Zieglers and Moms for Liberty, Jesus said, in Matthew 7:5:

    Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

    But these people really don't give a rat's behind about the "mote in thy brother's eye."  For them its about power and control, and the ability to inflict cruelty on people not like them.  

    I'll bet the books they're banning in schools you can probably find sitting on shelves with crusty, dog-eared pages in their own homes.

     

    3

Comments are closed.