The Women Left Behind
When we checked in again with Marni, three weeks after we first spoke to her, she told us that she had successfully had an abortion. And then she told us something else that drove home just how much the right to choose can depend upon whether the woman exercising that right is wealthy, fortunate or, in Marni’s case, unusually savvy.
She actually ended up being able to have the procedure in Austin — and she emphasized that was because she’s very lucky. “It was thanks to my increased visibility and the connections that came out of that,” she explained.
After Marni’s abortion appointment was canceled, ThinkProgress wasn’t the only media outlet she contacted. She spoke to several outlets, got connected to some of the women’s health organizations in the state, and even ended up appearing on a conference call hosted by Planned Parenthood to help provide more context for the immediate impact of Texas’ harsh new law. She met a lot of people who knew more about the landscape in Texas than she did — including Amy Hagstrom Miller, the founder and CEO of Whole Women’s Health, who booked Marni an appointment at one of the clinics she operates.