Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.
Impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has racked up a career of dick moves, but last week's appeal of a court decision regarding Texas' abortion law may be his most dickish yet.
Hours after a Texas judge last Friday issued a temporary exemption to the ban that would prevent prosecution of doctors who determine a fetus cannot survive after birth, Paxton's office appealed.
In typically politicized language, Paxton's first assistant attorney general, Brent Webster, blasted the injunction as the work of an "an activist Austin judge" intent on undoing Texas law.
Keep in mind, that the so-called "activist Austin judge" — Jessica Mangrum — issued a narrow ruling that shielded doctors from prosecution if they make a "good faith judgment" to end a complicated pregnancy. It's beyond state authorities' power to pursue charges against a doctor for making the medical decision to carry out such a procedure, she wrote.
Under current Texas law, physicians are only permitted to conduct an abortion if a woman's life is in danger.
During testimony, three women involved in the suit described their harrowing experiences of being denied abortions as their pregnancies took grim and unexpected turns.
One was almost forced to wait until her child miscarried naturally — that is, until she went into septic shock and doctors finally determined she could die without an abortion. Another held her newly delivered baby as it took its last breaths; she'd been forced to give birth even though the fetus had been diagnosed with a fatal malady that prevented its skull and brainstem from developing fully.
Paxton and his team are aware of the testimony and that of multiple doctors, who warned that the law, as written, prevents them from carrying out procedures that are medically necessary and can stave off profound health risks to pregnant women. Setting aside Paxton's many legal woes, it's clear that this assclown has made cruelty part of his brand. It should be increasingly clear to Texans that he's not fit to serve.
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