An emotional scene unfolded when this Texas clinic rejected patients as soon as the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
June 24, 2022 at 8:03 PM EDT
Patient Advocate Marjorie Eisen is having a sad, quiet time on Friday with a clinic staff member at the Houston Women’s Reproductive Services Clinic. (Annie Mulligan / For The Washington Post)
HOUSTON – Phones began ringing, as they always did, moments after Houston Women’s Reproduction Services opened at 9 a.m. Friday, with patients needing abortions calling to secure a place in the ‘schedule.
Then, 12 minutes later, everything stopped. The Supreme Court had overturned Roe against Wade.
“Can we still have abortions today?” asked patient advocate Marjorie Eisen, thinking about the 20 women they had booked for appointments.
Several were already in the waiting room, scrolling through their phones as they waited.
“No,” said Kathy Kleinfeld, a co-owner of the clinic. “They were done.”
A silence settled over the staff as they had the impressive news and what it would mean for the patients they cared for every day.
For the first time since 1973, Americans would have no constitutional right to abortion. The seismic decision will transform the lives of millions of years of women in the future. But this steamy Friday morning in Texas, it was an abrupt and life-changing change for patients sitting in the waiting room that day, thinking they had found a solution to their unwanted pregnancies.
The state had already banned abortions at six weeks, but in the end Roe reinstated an existing total ban enacted before the historic precedent, making it immediately illegal for the clinic’s doctors to perform the procedure. And while the clinic’s lawyers plan to challenge the law in court, the best they can do is buy it a little more time: within 30 days, an active ban will come into effect in Texas, which will ban statewide abortions.
Roe’s disappearance marks a new stage in the state-by-state battle for abortion
Suddenly, the staff had to decide what to tell their patients. Some of the women on the agenda that day had children, others did not. They were white, black, and Hispanic. At least one had traveled hundreds of miles to get to Houston, because the lone clinic in his hometown of Mississippi was scheduling multiple appointments. weeks off, and she wanted to leave her pregnancy behind.
Kleinfeld began to pull the women out of the waiting room, one by one, to break the news.
The second woman he spoke to left the clinic crying.
Since opening Houston Women’s Reproductive Services in 2019, Kleinfeld had worked hard to create a space where her patients would feel comfortable. She keeps a vase of lilies in the waiting room and lines the walls with motivational posters in different pastel shades.
As Kleinfeld told patients about the sentence, a Spotify playlist called “Peaceful Guitar” played in the background.
Meanwhile, other patient advocates turned to the phones: they had 35 patients scheduled to call.
Eisen, who had worked in abortion care for 30 years, hadn’t really prepared for that moment. Even after a draft of the decision was leaked in May, it was unbelievable. Roe it could really fall.
“We don’t even know which states to send them to,” Eisen said, speaking with other patient advocates. “California?”
He looked at a map of America, states with abortion bans shaded in gray, and then picked up the phone. He would start with the first appointments and move forward during the afternoon, he decided: Better to minimize the number of patients they had to personally reject.
One of the first patients on the list was Victoria, a 25-year-old single mother who was five weeks pregnant.
Victoria, who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition that only her name be used to protect her privacy, was 30 minutes from the clinic when she received the call, she stopped at a red light. As soon as he heard the news, he said, he burst into tears, trying to figure out what he would do now.
“There are a lot of women who just can’t,” she said later in an interview. “And right now I can’t.”
Although she was unable to have an abortion, Victoria decided to come to the clinic to talk about her options. Staff gave him a magazine article on how to order abortion pills online and mentioned some states where the procedure was still legal.
New Mexico. Colorado. Florida. Illinois.
Victoria should line up the daycare, she said, and ask for extra work time. She could cover her travel expenses, but barely: after her abortion, she said, she would live again “from pay to check.”
This Texas teen wanted an abortion. She now has twins.
The news was especially painful, Victoria said, because she had learned of her pregnancy so soon. As restrictive as the six-week Texas ban had been, he said, he had still managed to “beat it.”
“I’m five weeks old, no heartbeats.” And yet, he said, “my rights have just been taken away.”
After Victoria left the clinic, Eisen continued to go through her calls. Some of the patients took the news calmly and asked calm questions about various clinics in other states. Others asked if she was sure of the sentence. One begged.
“I can pay more,” the woman said.
“It’s not a matter of spending,” Eisen said. “It’s just a matter of legality.”
Phones continued to ring for much of the morning with new patients calling to schedule appointments, without fully knowing the Supreme Court ruling. Eisen and others repeated the same message: we have a Supreme Court decision. Think about who you might stay with in other states. It is devastating. I’m so sorry.
Finally, Kleinfeld decided he needed to record a new outgoing message.
“I am sorry to report that as of today, Friday, June 24, 2022, Roe against Wade, the right to legalized abortion has been annulled, ”Kleinfeld recited. “As of today, we can no longer offer abortion services.”
He paused, then added one more thought.
“We hope everyone remembers this when it’s time to vote.”
Moving patient after patient, Kleinfeld was frustrated by the little help he could offer. When the Texas abortion ban went into effect in the fall, she had sent patients to a sister clinic in Oklahoma. When Oklahoma banned abortions in the spring, it diverted them to providers in New Mexico or Colorado.
Now, most of the southeast and midwest would be dark.
Throughout the morning, Kleinfeld had been handing out copies of an article in Ms. Magazine. titled “People are getting creative getting abortion pills online,” which described several places to buy abortion pills, both legally and illegally. He marked “Aid Access” with a yellow highlight, drawing attention to an Austria-based organization run by Dutch doctor Rebecca Gomperts, which sends abortion pills by mail to all 50 states, including many states that have banned abortion for mail.
He couldn’t advise people to order abortion pills illegally online, Kleinfeld said with a smile, but he could hand out a recommended reading.
The doorbell rang and Kleinfeld looked at his external video camera.
Another patient was waiting to enter.
Roe vs. Wade and Access to Abortion in America
Roe v. Wade canceled: He The Supreme Court has invalidated Roe v. Wade, who for almost 50 years protects the right to abortion. Dobbs’ decision against Jackson Women’s Health was the most anticipated of the court’s term, with tension surrounding the fight for abortion erupting in May with the leaking of a draft opinion indicating that the majority of judges intended to end the long-standing precedent. Read the full decision here.
What happens next? Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the 1973 precedent, the legality of abortion will remain in the hands of individual states. This would likely mean that 52 percent of women of childbearing age will face new abortion limits. Thirteen states with “activating bans” will ban abortion within 30 days. Several other states where recent anti-abortion legislation has been blocked by the courts are expected to act next.
State legislation: As Republican-led states move to restrict abortion, The Post is tracking nationwide legislation on 15-week bans, Texas-style bans, activating laws and abortion pill bans , as well as Democratic-dominated states that move to protect abortion rights. consecrated in Roe against Wade.
Who was Jane Roe and how did she transform the right to abortion? “Jane Roe” was the pseudonym of Norma McCorvey, who as a 22-year-old single woman in Dallas in 1970 wanted to terminate her pregnancy. His case against a Dallas County District Attorney went to the Supreme Court. They gave him the right, 7-2, in 1973.