Without that assistance, Marni told us, she wouldn’t have known where to turn. In the immediate aftermath of Texas’ new abortion restrictions, most clinics’ websites hadn’t yet been updated to reflect whether they were still open. It was hard to tell whether a website was advertising an abortion clinic or a “crisis pregnancy center” — right-wing organizations masquerading as comprehensive health clinics that don’t actually provide abortions and often spread misinformation about health care services. It was overwhelming. But with Hagstrom Miller’s help, Marni was able to visit a clinic in Austin, bypass the long lines, and get the abortion care she needed.
Again, Marni isn’t rich; she told us she was especially grateful to have found an abortion clinic in Austin because her trip to Seattle was looking less likely by the day. She wasn’t confident she could afford the plane ticket back to Texas, and she definitely didn’t have enough money to allow her fiancee to travel with her.
But even though she’s not financially well-off, she’s still privileged. Marni is educated, media savvy, and connected — and she got her abortion. Although the process of exercising her right to choose was certainly a struggle, the right still exists for Marni.
But that’s simply not the case for many other Texas women who received the same phone call Marni did they night of the Fifth Circuit’s decision — and for thousands of other women who will be unable to obtain an abortion in the wake of that decision. The idea that every single woman seeking an abortion can catch the eye of a reporter and eventually be noticed by the CEO of a women’s health clinic is absurd. And even if that were possible, women hoping to terminate their pregnancies in Texas now have to compete for the time of a diminishing group of physicians who are legally permitted to perform abortions. Although four of Whole Woman’s Health’s five clinics remain open, some clinics that previously had three or four physicians on staff now have only one doctor with the admitting privileges required by the Texas law.