Texas judge allows abortion for woman despite state ban – National & International News – THU 7Dec2023

Texas judge allows abortion for woman despite state ban.

Man who killed 3 at Las Vegas campus shooting applied for professorship and was rejected.

NATIONAL NEWS

Texas judge allows abortion for woman despite state ban

Kate Cox, who is 20-weeks pregnant, recently learned her unborn baby had trisomy 18, a genetic abnormality that meant it might not survive to full term, and would almost certainly die within days or hours of birth. Cox’s OB-GYN, Dr. Damla Karsan, warned her that if she carried the baby to full term, Cox would need to have a C-section, which, because of her two previous pregnancies, would jeopardize her future fertility. The surest way to avoid life-changing damage was to perform an abortion. However, Karsan said her “hands were tied” by the state’s overlapping abortion bans.

Cox filed suit against the State of Texas seeking a temporary restraining order that would allow her to have the procedure recommended by her doctor. Under Texas law an emergency abortion is allowable only in cases where a “life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy” “places the woman in danger of death or a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function”. Cox’s lawyers argued that she should be allowed to obtain an abortion on the grounds that her future fertility was likely to be impaired if she were forced to carry her pregnancy to full term.

Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble. “The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.

Unclear standards for exemptions

A filing from the Texas Attorney General’s Office asking that a motion not be granted. In court, Jonathan Stone, a lawyer from the AG’s office, argued that Cox’s case “does not meet all of the elements” required to permit an abortion. Stone said that Dr. Ingrid Skop, an anti-abortion OB-GYN, had reviewed Cox’s case and didn’t find that her case met the standard of imminent harm.

Pitting Dr. Skop’s assessment against Dr. Karsan’s, Stone asserted that by granting Cox’s motion, Judge Gamble would be “effectively saying that the standard in Texas is not reasonable medical judgment. Instead, it’s a subjective standard, and it’s simply a good faith belief. You’d be both be changing the standard for the medical exemption in Texas, and then finding that the plaintiffs … qualify for that.”

Cox’s attorney Molly Duane countered, “I read the statute, Dr. Karsan reads the statute to say that a serious risk of substantial impairment of Ms. Cox’s reproductive functions would fall within the medical exemption. If that is not what the statute means, then the state after two years of silence really ought to tell us.”

The state is likely to appeal Gamble’s ruling. It’s unclear when Ms. Cox will receive her abortion. In the past month, as recently as Monday, Cox has been admitted to the ER four times.

The ruling in this case comes as another case is set to be argued before the Texas Supreme Court. In that case, dozens of women and OB-GYNs will argue that the state’s abortion bans are too vague on the matter of medical exceptions. This vagueness, they argue, has jeopardized the lives and health of women.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).

Man who killed 3 at Las Vegas campus shooting applied for professorship and was rejected 

Tony Polito, 67, killed three staff members at the Las Vegas campus of the University of Nevada yesterday before being killed himself in a shootout with police. Sources have said that Polito had unsuccessfully applied for a professorship at the university. Polito was formerly a tenured associate professor at East Carolina University where he specialized in the study of Supply Chain Management. He resigned from that position in 2017.  From October 2018 to June 2022, Polito was an adjunct faculty member at Roseman University in Henderson, Nevada

Polito’s online profile shares numerous links on everything from economic studies, to luxury shopping and hotels, to Las Vegas sights and events. Under another heading titled “Powerful Organizations Bent on World Domination!”, he also shares links about Bohemian Grove, the Bilderberg group, the Rothschild family, and David Icke, a conspiracy theorist who believes that the world is dominated by shape-shifting lizard people.

Another heading titled Theories Regarding Various Mysteries and Puzzles shares links to writings of Polito’s. They contain his musings on everything from an undeciphered code in a letter from the Zodiac Killer (who Polito claimed to have identified), to the search for extraterrestrial life, to films such as Lost Highway (1997), Inception (201o), and The Bridesmaid (2004).

It’s not clear whether Polito’s crime had anything to do with his affinity for conspiracy theories, or whether he was just upset about not getting the position at UNLV, or some other reason. Police have not released any material in which Polito explains his actions.

Two of Polito’s victims have been identified as Prof. ChaJan “Jerry” Chang, 64, and Prof. Patricia Navarro Velez, 39. Police have identified the third victim and are still trying to reach the next of kin. A fourth person was also wounded in the shooting.

Click here for the full story (opens in new tab).