Kate Cox is the only name we need to remember when it comes to a woman’s right to choose.
She is the target of what I call thoughtless moralism that is common in America today among Republicans and evangelical Christians. It could be called callous moralism, which is a cruel disregard for others, or even evil, but I’ll stick with thoughtless.
Kate is the 31 year-old Texas mother of two children who is 20 weeks pregnant with a fetus that has trisomy 18, a rare chromosomal disorder likely to cause the fetus to die in the womb, be a stillbirth, or die an excruciatingly painful death shortly after birth.
To continue this pregnancy also puts Kate’s life in jeopardy and/or her future fertility. State court Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled this week that it would be a travesty of justice and morality to force her to carry her pregnancy to term.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton showed just how thoughtless his brand of morality is when he responded to the decision by issuing a threat to everyone and anyone who would help Kate have an abortion.
“This decision,” he callously opined, “will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws.”
Paxton’s words and threatened actions are a classic example of the evil inherent in thoughtless moralism.
Philosophically, moralism is the practice of trying to imbue or instill society with a particular set of moral laws.
What I am calling “thoughtless moralism” is the practice of imposing so-called moral laws on society without concern for the complexities of the circumstances to which those laws must be applied, circumstances that affect knowing what is the right thing to do in the actual situation a person is facing.
Thoughtless moralism, then, is essentially the tone deaf effort to legislate morality. Every sensible parent knows how futile that is. People who believe thoughtless moralism dictates the right thing to do don’t.
So we have Ken Paxton proving how damaging thoughtless moralism is in real life situations in his response to Kate Cox, her family, and her caregivers as they wrestle with the most heart-wrenching decision anyone can face.
It’s worth mentioning that Kate is not alone. More than 20 other women are suing the state of Texas over its abortion law because of the pain and suffering and near death experiences its thoughtless moralism has caused and is causing them.
But here’s the kicker. Actually doing what is morally right doesn’t matter in Texas. The majority of Texas voters elected Ken Paxton not once, not twice, but three times as their Attorney General. They did the same with Governor Greg Abbott whose moral compass is as broken as Paxton’s.
The level of moral hypocrisy those votes represent is astonishing. That people who consider themselves decent, if not righteous, are willing to give political power to morally obtuse people that guarantees others will suffer harm boggles the mind.
I only hope a majority of American voters will never think, act, or be like Texas voters who either don’t know or don’t care that rigid attitudes about right and wrong always lead to bad outcomes, and any religion that perpetuates them is bad for the world.
Kate Cox is a responsible, loving mother and wife who represents the best of who most of us are, thoughtful moral citizens who understand that decisions in complicated circumstances in life cannot be made by blindly following a morally simple-minded solution.
May God watch over her and her family during this tragic time. As for Ken Paxton, well, he’s another example of why I wish I believed in hell.
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