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Women of Texas, now you know: The state’s abortion law will not protect you in the case of a medical emergency. Not only will the state’s attorney general come after you, the all-Republican, Texas Supreme Court will contort itself to find that your situation doesn’t constitute an emergency that would allow an abortion to proceed. Never mind what your doctors say — courts know best, even as they purport to be deferring to medical judgment. (Ruth Marcus, 12/13)

For more than a year here in Texas, women in Kate Cox’s position have had to navigate a legal hell. The Dallas-area woman and her husband, Justin, already had two children at home when they received the news no parents want to hear. Her weeks-old fetus had an almost certain fatal condition: trisomy 18. She had to visit the emergency room four times due to severe symptoms. Her doctor told her that the pregnancy could risk her future fertility, but an abortion wasn’t possible in Texas without permission from the courts. (12/12)

More than two years ago, when the Legislature passed a near total ban on abortion, with vague exceptions for the health of the mother, we wrote that “the recently enacted Texas law isn’t going to improve this country’s long-simmering debate over abortion. It’s more likely to mire us in conflict and legal chaos.” And here we are. The law was not only poorly written, it wasn’t designed to change the hearts of those who view the right to abortion differently from the state’s most conservative lawmakers and citizens. It was instead crafted in a way sure to collide with the moral complexity that abortion represents. (12/13)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his supporters are not seeking to protect the unborn by opposing Kate Cox’s bid to obtain an abortion and Amanda Zurawski’s and others’ lawsuit to clarify Texas’ ambiguous abortion ban. Rather, they are revealing the real purpose behind their alleged efforts to “protect life.” (Laura Hermer, 12/13)