Kate Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two in Texas, wanted a third child. She became pregnant in August but soon learned that her fetus had a rare, extremely severe chromosomal disorder known as trisomy 18 (also known as Edwards syndrome). At least 95 percent of trisomy 18 fetuses do not survive pregnancy. Of the few delivered alive, all are severely disabled, and less than ten percent live to be one year old. 

Right now, it is very possible that—despite her desire—the state of Texas will force her to carry this fetus to term, putting her life in danger. The fascist lunatics in the Texas government are aiming to enforce a future where women are enslaved as breeders and incubators, and they are not full human beings. This situation—for Kate Cox, and for all women—demands revolution! 

Kate’s two previous pregnancies were difficult, and she has already been to the ER four times with this pregnancy. Her ob-gyn, Dr. Damla Karsan, warned that if she tries to bring the pregnancy to term, it could endanger both her future ability to have children and her own survival.

Kate decided to have an abortion. But Texas is a state run by Christian fascists, which has two laws that effectively ban nearly all abortions.¹ These laws have no exception for victims of rape or incest or for severe fetal abnormalities. Doctors who perform abortions can face life in prison. Anyone who assists the woman—including family members, nurses, etc.—can be sued.

The one supposed exception is if the pregnancy presents an imminent threat to the mother’s life. But the language of the law is so vague—and the possible penalties so harsh—that Texas doctors and hospitals often refuse to perform an abortion until the pregnant woman is on the brink of death.

In the face of all this, Kate Cox and Dr. Karsan courageously pursued her legal ability to get an abortion. Unable to find a medical provider who would risk criminal and civil penalties, she went to a Texas state court, which issued an order allowing her to receive an abortion.

But within hours, the Christian fascist Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. Paxton argued that Kate's death was not imminent enough because after her four visits to the emergency room, she was still able to go home! Viciously enforcing the patriarchal authority of the state over women, Paxton told the Supreme Court: “Nothing will prevent enforcement of Texas’s civil and criminal penalties” for abortion.

The state Supreme Court issued a stay on the lower-court order, meaning that Kate is blocked from having an abortion until the Court reaches a final decision. Since the Court consists of nine Republi-fascist “justices,” chances that Kate will lose in the final decision are high. 

Kate is now 20 weeks pregnant—every passing day of stress and anxiety increases the chances of complications in her pregnancy or in the abortion (if she ever gets to have one). If she doesn’t get an abortion—and if she and the fetus survive—she will be turned into an incubator by the state, and then forced to watch her newborn suffer and die over hours, days, weeks, or at most months.

The determination of the State of Texas to force Kate to carry this fetus is a stark illustration of the position of all women in this society with the federal right to abortion overturned. And it is a specter of what’s to come if the Christian fascists—in Texas and throughout society—hold power. Unless those who refuse to let this nightmare be our future get organized now for revolution—a real revolution. 

This revolution is not just necessary, it is possible—and more possible in this time. What these fascists are enforcing in Texas with their attempts at a theocratic—biblically based—rule underscores how this society is being ripped apart. The Republican fascist section of the rulers of this system are moving toward an outright fascist form of rule. As we can see in Texas, openly subordinating women, terrorizing LGBTQ people, promoting unapologetic white supremacy and vicious anti-immigrant hatred—enforced through violence. The other section—the Democrats—are fighting for the horrific way things have been and desperately trying to hold their oppressive system together.

As the proclamation We Are the Revcoms says: “Shaping up before us now are two fundamentally opposed futures: Something Terrible, Or Something Truly Emancipating. And this truth rings out now more powerfully than ever: Which future we get depends to a great extent on what we do.”

Forced motherhood = Female enslavement

Unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution!