- In March, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order suspending most abortions during the coronavirus pandemic as non-essential procedures.
- Activists say the ban has forced women to drive hundreds of miles across state lines to receive care, sometimes spending thousands of dollars.
- On Thursday, a court overturned most of Abbott’s order. Less than 24 hours later, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and once again halted medication abortions.
- “It is clear that our elected officials are just playing politics, but we are not objects to be played with,” said reproductive justice advocate Lucy Ceballos Félix.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
On Tuesday, an appeals court ruled that Texas was within its rights to severely curtail access to abortion during the coronavirus pandemic as part of the state’s policy suspending all procedures that weren’t “medically necessary.”
The decision sent women seeking abortions scrambling for care as hundreds of appointments at dozens of clinics were canceled. The situation is especially dire because Texas already prohibits abortions after 20 weeks, meaning some women wouldn’t be able to terminate their pregnancy even if the ban was lifted by April 22, when Gov. Greg Abbott’s emergency order is set to expire.
“[Abortion] is a time-sensitive procedure that cannot and should not wait for a pandemic to pass or lengthy legal battles to conclude,” Alexis McGill Johnson, acting president of Planned Parenthood, told Insider. “A delay in services of only a few weeks can make abortion completely inaccessible.”
Under the auspices of limiting “non-essential” procedures during the pandemic, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement on March 23, announced the prohibition extended to “any type of abortion that is not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.” (The same order also suspends “routine dermatological, ophthalmological, and dental procedures.”)
He later tweeted that abortion providers were "withholding desperately needed supplies and personal protective equipment in favor of a procedure that they refer to as a 'choice.'"
But abortion is essential healthcare, Johnson said. "To argue otherwise is to place yourself in opposition to medical facts."
Women's reproductive healthcare is already under fire in Texas
The 2013 passage of House Bill 2, which required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, led to the closing of half of the state's abortion clinics. Those closures led to some women having to drive for days to cross state lines.
Worse still, some women have turned to potentially dangerous means to end their pregnancies: A study from the University of Texas at Austin found that, even before the ban, women in Texas were already trying herbs and other home remedies at three times the rate of the rest of the US.
Lucy Ceballos Félix of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice said the pandemic order has disproportionately impacted local communities of color, already fighting the coronavirus "with less hospitals, less doctors, and less health insurance coverage."
Latinas tend to work jobs that "don't provide health insurance, paid sick leave or a fair wage," Félix added. "And they are facing some very difficult decisions to continue to make ends meet and support their families," during the pandemic.
"They may already be dealing with layoffs and other financial and structural barriers, including lack of documentation," which makes it dangerous for them to cross state borders for an abortion, Felix explained.
Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, said the cost of an abortion was already out of reach for many of her clients.
The procedure typically costs $500 but can spiral into thousands of dollars if childcare, transportation, and lodging are needed to meet the state's 24-hour waiting period requirement. For a medication abortion, in which the drug is delivered in two doses and requires a sonogram and followup appointments, patients may have to make up to four visits over a 14-day period.
Johnson has heard accounts "of women driving hundreds and hundreds of miles to another state to access abortion, and of women with fatal fetal anomalies left with no options."
The suspension order is taxing abortion clinics in neighboring states
Calls to clinics in New Mexico and Oklahoma were met with overwhelmed and exhausted receptionists facing a deluge of inquiries from hundreds of women from Texas.
"We're so slammed right now," a woman answering the phones at Trust Women Oklahoma City said.
Dr. Shelley Sella, who performs abortions in Albuquerque, New Mexico, told The New York Times that the number of Texan patients they've seen has "dramatically increased."
"We would see women maybe who lived on the border between Texas and New Mexico, but now we're seeing patients from Houston, driving from Houston for a medication abortion," she said. "So they're driving 13 hours for a pill."
Conner said her group, which normally helps women pay for abortions in northern Texas, has pivoted to raising funds for them to travel to Colorado and New Mexico. But those neighboring states are also dealing with COVID-19. That means fewer appointments as the staff needs time to clean and less available space in order to follow social distancing.
A global crisis doesn't mean that fewer abortions are needed, Conner said. Like heart attacks and car accidents, "they don't pause as we figure out how to react to a global pandemic."
"Banning abortion doesn't stop people from wanting or needing an abortion, it only drives pregnant people toward dangerous options like putting their health at risk by traveling to neighboring states during a pandemic to get the care they need," Johnson said.
Some of the women needing abortions, she added, are the same ones being asked to work on the front lines during this public health crisis. "They're being told that their jobs are essential but their own healthcare isn't. It's unconscionable."
A whiplash series of court rulings 'is sowing fear and confusion,' activists say
Johnson said Planned Parenthood was ready to take the battle back to federal court. And Paxton said he expected the case to wind up before the US Supreme Court.
On Thursday night a federal judge blocked part of the suspension order, allowing clinics in the state to offer medication abortions. Additionally, patients who will be 18 weeks into a pregnancy by April 22 can also receive an abortion, since they would be past the state's gestational limit when the ban ended.
Then, less than 24 hours later, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and once again halted medication abortions.
"We have seen clinics in Texas close and then open, and then close and open again in a matter of days," Félix said in response to the latest ruling. "It is dizzying, and it is sowing fear and confusion in our communities. It is clear that our elected officials are just playing politics, but we are not objects to be played with. We are human beings who have rights, and we need access to essential healthcare, including abortion care, without more baseless obstructions and delays."