Biden guest at State of the Union will be Texas abortion case mom

The mother at the center of a high-profile Texas Supreme Court abortion case will attend President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech to Congress as a guest of the president and first lady Jill Biden, the White House said Wednesday.

The Texas high court last month denied Kate Cox’s request to terminate her pregnancy in the state after the mother of two learned her fetus had a fatal diagnosis as the result of a rare chromosomal disorder.

Abortions have been banned in Texas since shortly after June 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its half-century-old ruling in the case Roe v. Wade.

To obtain an abortion, Cox was forced to travel out of Texas. Her lawyers had said that Cox’s own health was at significantly increased risk if she carried the fetus to term.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Bidens spoke with Cox on Sunday, and “they thanked her for her courage in sharing her story, and speaking out about the impact of the extreme abortion ban in Texas.”

“The first lady invited Kate to join her as a guest at the State of the Union and Kate accepted,” Jean-Pierre said.

“It is important for Americans to hear the horrific stories that we’re hearing from women of their experiences across the country,” Jean-Pierre said.

Biden is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress on March 7.

Cases of women having to travel outside their home states for abortions have become more common since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 ruled that there was no longer a federal constitutional right to abortion, leaving it to individual states to set their own laws on terminating pregnancies.

Since that decision, voters in a range of states, including ones controlled by Republicans, have opposed measures that would restrict abortion, or backed laws to expand abortion access, in addition to supporting candidates who advocate for abortion rights.

Biden’s reelection campaign has made abortion rights and reproductive health care a central pillar of its platform.

On Tuesday, Biden’s campaign held a rally attacking former President Donald Trump’s anti-abortion agenda. Trump won the New Hampshire Republican primary later that day.

“The Biden-Harris administration is standing with the majority of Americans on this and Republican elected officials are just not,” Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.