Most Americans are conflicted about abortion, and most are reluctant to condemn a woman who has had one. But they are also reluctant to honor those who have. Not the Bidens.
At the State of the Union on March 7, the Bidens will showcase Kate Cox, a woman who left Texas in December to have her baby aborted. The First Lady and the president spoke to her in January after the abortion.
Cox’s child was diagnosed as having Trisomy 18, more popularly known as Edwards syndrome. It is a severe genetic disorder that typically results in a miscarriage during the first three months of pregnancy; 95 percent of these babies do not make it to term. Cox was 20 weeks pregnant when she had her abortion.
We first learned of the decision to honor Cox on January 24. That is when Kelly O’Donnell of NBC asked White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if the Biden administration had plans to personalize the issue of abortion. Three days earlier, Jean-Pierre said, “The First Lady invited Kate to join her as a guest at the State of the Union, and Kate accepted.”
According to Jean-Pierre, Cox was “forced to go to court to seek permission for the care she needed for a non-viable pregnancy that threatened the life—that threatened her life.” But the justices in Texas who ruled on this case did not all see eye to eye on this issue.
It is true that the District Court of Travis County said that Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, concluded that her patient’s life was threatened and merited a D&E abortion. But the Texas Supreme Court noted that “Dr. Karsan did not assert that Ms. Cox has a ‘life-threatening physical condition’ or that, in Dr. Karsan’s reasonable medical judgment, an abortion is necessary because Ms. Cox has the type of condition the exception requires.”
Turning to the medical community, a study published in the America Journal of Perinatology in 2017 concluded there was no increased maternal risk involved in Trisomy 18 pregnancies.
Whether Cox’s condition met the criteria for an abortion is an important matter, but it has nothing to do with the decision to glamorize her. To say it is in bad taste is an understatement.
Cheering Cox on is the Center for Reproductive Rights who, with Cox, sued Texas. It is one of the most well-funded pro-abortion institutions in the world. It is disturbed that so many disabilities organizations are decidedly pro-life. “At times,” it says, “the disability rights movement has in fact alienated feminists by forging strategic alliances with anti-abortion groups to advance shared priorities, or by remaining silent on the abortion issue in order to avoid controversy within their own movement.”
The history of the eugenics movement, in this country with its racist agenda, and in Nazi Germany with its genocidal agenda, should be enough to give all disabled persons and organizations pause. They are always one step removed from experiencing the “compassion” of the population control crowd.
In a poll taken last month, 58 percent of Americans believe that babies born with Down syndrome should not be aborted. Among Republicans, 75 percent are against aborting these babies; 58 percent of independents are opposed; but the figure for Democrats is only 42 percent—56 percent support such abortions. Count Jill and Joe among the latter.
It is bad enough that the Bidens are flagging Kate Cox’s decision to abort her baby. It is worse that they deliberately chose a woman to be honored who was carrying a baby with disabilities. Quite frankly, Jill Biden is exploiting this woman to enhance the political capital of her husband.
Contact the White House Secretary: Karine.Jean-Pierre@who.eop.gov
