The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that would have allowed a 20-week-pregnant woman to get an abortion. Ken Paxton, Texas’s Republican attorney general, intervened to stop the emergency procedure and threatened to prosecute any providers involved in giving 31-year-old Kate Cox an abortion. Doctors have told Cox that carrying the nonviable pregnancy to term could make it impossible for her to have more children. Cox’s lawyer at the Center for Reproductive Rights says that even if the Texas Supreme Court allows the lower court order to stay in place, the delay in treatment could mean “justice delayed will be justice denied.”

Meanwhile, a pregnant woman in Kentucky is suing over her state’s near-total ban on abortions. The lawsuit argues the ban violates Kentucky’s Constitution. The plaintiff is also seeking class-action status so that any positive outcome can be applied to all pregnant people in Kentucky who need or want an abortion. This is Rebecca Gibron, head of Planned Parenthood Kentucky, which is also a plaintiff in the case.

Rebecca Gibron: “In America, every eight hours a woman dies from pregnancy complications. And evidence is correlating abortion bans as a key factor driving increasing maternal and infant death rates. Tragically, Kentucky has one of the highest maternal death rates in this country.”