Want to see what Republicans want for abortion rights nationally? Look at Texas.

Texas is showing Americans the dark future women face if Republicans have full control of abortion rights.

The state’s abortion laws are so draconian, a 31-year-old woman had to ask a judge to grant her and her doctors permission to end a nonviable pregnancy that is putting her health and future ability to have children at risk.

And when a Travis County district judge granted a temporary restraining order late last week that would allow Kate Cox to have the medically necessary abortion, Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton immediately sent a letter to the three hospitals where her doctors have privileges threatening prosecutions and civil penalties.

Then he filed a petition with the state Supreme Court asking that the ruling be blocked. The court paused the ruling Friday, leaving Cox both in limbo and in danger.

She has been to the emergency room four times in the past month due to complications with the pregnancy.

Texas' abortion laws are putting a woman through hell

Think about what's happening here. In the year 2023, a woman and her doctor have to ask a judge’s permission to get an abortion. And when that permission is granted, a man seated in the state attorney general’s office defiantly says: “No. I won’t allow it.” Then the state's high court puts everything on hold while Cox and her family suffer in fear and uncertainty.

It’s both dystopian and illustrative of what Americans can expect if Republicans win the presidency and greater control of Congress or state governors’ offices in 2024. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, reproductive rights have become a central issue for voters and a huge driver of voter turnout.

Republicans have responded by trying to downplay an issue that for decades was central to their campaigns, hoping, it seems, the electorate will forget conservatives finally achieved their goal of taking away the federal right to an abortion.

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A national abortion ban would turn America into Texas

But there should be no doubt a Republican president, bolstered by a GOP-controlled Congress, would seek a national abortion ban that could put women in any state in the same horrifying bind as Cox.

According to a complaint filed last week by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Cox, she is 20 weeks pregnant and an amniocentesis found “full trisomy 18, meaning her pregnancy may not survive to birth, and, if it does, her baby would be stillborn or survive for only minutes, hours, or days.”

The complaint said: “For weeks, Ms. Cox’s physicians have been telling her that early screening and ultrasound tests suggest that her pregnancy is unlikely to end with a healthy baby. Because Ms. Cox has had two prior cesarean surgeries (‘C-sections’), continuing the pregnancy puts her at high risk for severe complications threatening her life and future fertility, including uterine rupture and hysterectomy.”

But because of Texas’ abortion bans, according to the complaint, “Ms. Cox’s physicians have informed her that their ‘hands are tied’ and she will have to wait until her baby dies inside her or carry the pregnancy to term, at which point she will be forced to have a third C-section, only to watch her baby suffer until death.”

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Texas judge allows Kate Cox to get abortion, but ...

On Thursday, Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble issued the temporary restraining order and said: “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.”

In response, the attorney general leveled threats: “The Temporary Restraining Order (‘TRO’) granted by the Travis County district judge purporting to allow an abortion to proceed will not insulate hospitals, doctors, or anyone else, from civil and criminal liability for violating Texas’ abortion laws. This includes first degree felony prosecutions … and civil penalties of not less than $100,000 for each violation.”

Then he turned to the Texas Supreme Court. What happens next is anyone's guess.

State involvement in a woman's private health care decision is twisted

This is a tragic situation and at no point should anyone beyond the mother and her physicians be involved in decision-making. I can’t imagine the pain Cox and her husband are experiencing, but to have it made far worse by the state threatening prosecutions and standing in the way of the safest medical decision? That’s a nightmare. That’s edging far too close to “The Handmaid’s Tale” territory.

And if you think, even for a moment, this isn’t what longtime abortion opponents want, I beg you think again.

There is no reason to trust Republicans on the issue of abortion rights

Leading GOP presidential primary candidate Donald Trump has refused to back a national abortion ban. But he has bragged repeatedly about getting Roe overturned during his administration, posting on social media in May: “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone.”

What's happening to Cox in Texas is happening solely because Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that he supports a 15-week federal abortion ban, while fellow Republican primary candidate Nikki Haley has danced around the subject. She says she wants one but doesn’t think it can pass, but also said recently that she'd have signed a six-week ban as South Carolina governor if one had made it to her desk.

In June of last year, current U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana posted this on social media: “The (Louisiana) Department of Health informed abortion facilities in our state that the right to life has now been RESTORED! Perform an abortion and get imprisoned at hard labor for 1-10 yrs & fined $10K-$100K.”

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Voters in 2024 will likely let Republicans know abortion rights matter

Are these the people you want to trust when it comes to a woman’s right to make her own reproductive health care decisions? Should any woman be forced to go through the hell Cox and her family have gone through?

Republicans want you to forget about Roe. And they themselves want to believe this won’t be an issue in the 2024 elections.

I suspect Cox’s case in Texas and other disturbing examples of women losing rights in states with strict abortion bans will prove them terribly and deservedly wrong.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on X, formerly Twitter, @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Texas abortion law shows future of reproductive rights under GOP