What is trisomy 18, the disorder at the center of Texas abortion lawsuit?

The fetus of a Dallas area woman who was granted permission to get an abortion has been diagnosed with full trisomy 18, a disorder in which babies have three copies of chromosome 18 instead of two.

She has been told by her doctors that the baby will be stillborn or live for only minutes, hours or days. Her attorneys argued that the woman, Kate Cox, falls within the medical exemptions to Texas abortion laws.

For an unknown reason, this accident occurs at the time of conception and all cells in the body will have this structure.

Trisomy 18 occurs in 1 in 2,000 to 6,000 live births, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. There is no known cause of the disorder. Median survival among live births is between 2.5 and 14.5 days.

Cox has had four emergency room visits the past month for symptoms such as severe cramps, leaking fluid and elevated vital signs, according to Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights, who argued Thursday morning before Judge Guerra Gamble of Travis County.

The judge sided with Cox and her legal team, issuing a temporary retraining order that allows Cox to access an abortion in Texas.

“The idea that Ms. Cox wants desperately to be a parent and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Gamble said.