“We have no choice”: the hard journey of women in the United States who travel thousands of miles to have an abortion

When F. found out she was pregnant for the eighth time, she wanted to cry. She is a housewife and dependent on her husband, she has been tormented for three weeks about what to do with her and has always come to the same conclusion: “I can not have this child”.

The hardest thing for her was finding out how hostile America has become against abortion.

“What options do they leave us?” asked the woman from El Paso, in the conservative state of Texas.

After the Supreme Court overturned that right on Friday, the expectation is that more than half of the states will make the procedure illegal. forcing women to travel hundreds of kilometers go to the liberal states which, thanks to the federal system, can keep their local regulations in force.

F., who requested anonymity to avoid being judged, felt lucky to find an appointment 45 minutes from home.

The Women’s Reproductive Health Clinic has been operational since 2015 in Santa Teresa, a small town in New Mexico on the border with Texas.

The location is unique. She is in a state where abortion is legal, but five minutes from the Texas border, where the procedure is banned after the sixth week; when many women do not know they are pregnant.

In the waiting room of the clinic most women come alone and wait in silence.

The warm-toned walls contrast with the fuchsia uniform of some nurses. Others wear Texas map T-shirts with the legend: “The accusation is unfair.”

Shame

Patients report feeling ashamed or judged in their social contexts, but with masks covering half of their faces, they gain anonymity.

One by one, they are called by number and not by name.

“The hardest thing for me was deciding how I was going to get here, because I know there is a lot of stigma,” says Ehrece, a 35-year-old engineer who has traveled more than a thousand miles from Dallas.

“I asked the taxi driver to drop me off at the gas station later, and I drove here, so I don’t know where I was going,” said the young woman who has a boyfriend and doesn’t want to start a family now for professional reasons.

Ehrece does not exaggerate. The so-called “Heartbeat Act” in effect in Texas since September allows for this criminalize anyone who contributes to the procedureincluding drivers or medical staff.

“They don’t make it easy for you,” complained Emily, a 35-year-old yoga teacher who doesn’t want to be a mother. “Before you come, you worry that someone will attack you outside the clinic or that some madman will come with a weapon,” she confesses.

The changes do not scare Dr. Franz Theard, head of the clinic.

The 73-year-old midwife has been practicing abortions since 1984, shortly before attackers in the United States bombed clinics and killed doctors.

“We were lucky that the state of New Mexico has very liberal laws,” he tells the AFP.

“We are certified for everything, but they don’t haunt us. In Texas we had to report every detail of every patient monthly.”

Theard no longer performs surgery, prescribing just abortion with pillsallowed until week 10 in New Mexico: one Mifepristone tablet, which prevents the progression of pregnancy, and four Misoprostol the next day, which causes bleeding.

The procedure costs $ 700, with some socioeconomic exceptions.

Like the nurses and aides at the clinic, Theard is not afraid of retaliation, nor is he intimidated by the few people who stand outside his clinic every day urging patients to rethink their decision.

Inside, the phone doesn’t stop.

cross borders

“How many weeks are you?” asks the assistant Rocío Negrete on the phone. “We have appointments but we can only serve you if it’s up to the tenth week,” she continues. The dialogue is repeated several times a day.

Negrete states this with restrictions the number of patients from other states has increased.

But some women, out of fear or for economic reasons, cross another border.

Half an hour away by car, on the border with Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, some pharmacies sell Misoprostol without a prescription, also indicated for treating ulcers. The 28-pill box costs between $ 20 and $ 50. Mifepristone is not openly available, but it is offered illicitly.

“Women buy it and they don’t know how to get it,” said a pharmacist in bubbly Ciudad Juárez with a box of Misoprostol in hand. “It’s a danger, they can have bleeding, so it’s best to see a doctor.”

In Santa Teresa, women, with different contexts and economic circumstances, agree that hence the importance of the legality of the procedure and of putting an end to the stigma.

“If a woman wants to have an abortion, she will. There will be all kinds of illegal alternatives, with which a woman can even die,” says Ehrece.

“It’s exhausting. It doesn’t make sense that we can’t make our own decisions in 2022,” he concludes.

Source: AFP

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