The Texas Supreme Court has made clear that its state is not a safe place to become pregnant. That is the bottom line of its astonishing decision that reversed a lower court’s order protecting a woman who wanted to end a dangerous and futile pregnancy.

Kate Cox, who is the mother of two young children, has had difficult pregnancies in the past. She recently learned that her fetus has a rare fatal condition called trisomy 18. If she carried the pregnancy to term, the baby would almost surely die in pain within a year and she might be unable to have any more children.

Texas bans abortion, but the statute has an exception in cases where “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment, the pregnant female” has a condition that endangers her life or “poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function unless the abortion is performed or induced.” Childbearing is obviously a major bodily function.

But Texas law also imposes heavy criminal and civil penalties on a doctor who performs an abortion that is not within the exception. That led Cox’s doctors to state that their “hands are tied” until the fetus dies. She argued before a trial court judge that she is protected by the statute, and the court issued an order barring any such prosecution. “The Court finds that Ms. Cox’s life, health, and fertility are currently at serious risk,” the judge wrote. “The longer Ms. Cox stays pregnant, the greater the risks to her life.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton responded by sending the doctor and the hospital a letter........

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