Republican candidates dodge addressing Kate Cox case, after Texas woman leaves the state to have an abortion

WASHINGTON — Abortion has once again been thrown into the spotlight in the 2024 presidential race, with the Texas Supreme Court ruling Monday against a mother of two from Dallas who sought to terminate her pregnancy after doctors diagnosed her fetus with a fatal genetic condition.

Kate Cox left Texas to obtain the procedure this week after the state's high court ruled her doctors hadn't met the legal threshold for Cox to obtain an abortion.

After the Texas ruling, several Republican candidates took pains to sidestep the question of whether the justices made the right call. 

Asked whether she supports controverisal the ruling, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told reporters at a campaign event Tuesday in New Hampshire that, while she has long opposed abortion, she favors compassionate policies.

“But this is exactly why I’ve said you have to show compassion and humanize the situation," Haley said. "We don't want any women to sit there and deal with a rare situation and have to deliver a baby in that sort of circumstance any more than we want women getting an abortion at 37, 38, 39 weeks.”

She later added, “at the end of the day, this is about how do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible.” Haley previously said she would have signed a six-week abortion ban as governor.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took a similar approach, spotlighting his anti-abortion bona fides while calling for understanding.

When asked whether the law should force a woman to carry a fetus with a fatal condition to term, DeSantis said it was a "difficult situation."

“We got to approach these issues with compassion because these are very difficult issues," he said. "Nobody would wish this to happen on anybody. If you’re in that situation as a mother, that’s an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with.”

DeSantis said that Florida’s abortion law, which bans the procedure after 15 weeks, contains exemptions for rape, incest or medical emergencies. He previously said he would support a 15-week federal abortion ban.

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy also avoided directly addressing fairness of the Texas ruling. He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “the winning path for the GOP on abortion isn’t to compromise on our principles, it’s to practice what we preach: codify sexual responsibility for men into the law.”

“If a woman carries a child to term, she can automatically make the man the legally responsible party for the child if confirmed by paternity test," he said. "It’s not about men’s rights vs women’s rights. It’s about *human* rights.”

Ramaswamy opposes a federal abortion ban, while supporting six-week bans for the states.