Zürcher Nachrichten - Crossing the line: Texans facing ban at home seek abortions next door

EUR -
AED 3.864558
AFN 70.494102
ALL 97.271059
AMD 407.155517
ANG 1.896104
AOA 960.613091
ARS 1056.248038
AUD 1.631278
AWG 1.8965
AZN 1.791206
BAM 1.954184
BBD 2.124143
BDT 125.716025
BGN 1.949289
BHD 0.396502
BIF 3048.60406
BMD 1.05215
BND 1.415816
BOB 7.269126
BRL 6.090159
BSD 1.05203
BTN 88.793862
BWP 14.440919
BYN 3.442853
BYR 20622.13618
BZD 2.120586
CAD 1.47947
CDF 3015.461382
CHF 0.937518
CLF 0.037193
CLP 1026.277825
CNY 7.607358
CNH 7.633568
COP 4716.787576
CRC 537.355573
CUC 1.05215
CUP 27.88197
CVE 110.363712
CZK 25.291264
DJF 186.988154
DKK 7.458676
DOP 63.602651
DZD 140.588561
EGP 52.233238
ERN 15.782247
ETB 128.283337
FJD 2.393671
FKP 0.83048
GBP 0.831162
GEL 2.867092
GGP 0.83048
GHS 16.887178
GIP 0.83048
GMD 74.702778
GNF 9081.104686
GTQ 8.124589
GYD 220.093785
HKD 8.187341
HNL 26.387556
HRK 7.505257
HTG 138.234358
HUF 406.601144
IDR 16790.574842
ILS 3.937918
IMP 0.83048
INR 88.885401
IQD 1378.84232
IRR 44300.767226
ISK 145.690973
JEP 0.83048
JMD 166.542259
JOD 0.746077
JPY 164.475189
KES 136.255597
KGS 90.881018
KHR 4262.25889
KMF 490.83124
KPW 946.934426
KRW 1480.916654
KWD 0.323452
KYD 0.876658
KZT 521.56863
LAK 23089.427195
LBP 94272.622526
LKR 307.355797
LRD 193.70505
LSL 19.147959
LTL 3.106725
LVL 0.636435
LYD 5.134208
MAD 10.492567
MDL 19.056877
MGA 4903.018084
MKD 61.274857
MMK 3417.341525
MNT 3575.204981
MOP 8.433465
MRU 42.049169
MUR 49.650906
MVR 16.266333
MWK 1825.479971
MXN 21.508788
MYR 4.715726
MZN 67.179687
NAD 19.147075
NGN 1767.569779
NIO 38.677193
NOK 11.743833
NPR 142.075896
NZD 1.79987
OMR 0.4051
PAB 1.05205
PEN 4.002903
PGK 4.147838
PHP 61.975307
PKR 292.604659
PLN 4.320964
PYG 8216.204675
QAR 3.830614
RON 4.9753
RSD 116.403513
RUB 104.831166
RWF 1439.340933
SAR 3.951908
SBD 8.820576
SCR 15.513945
SDG 632.870058
SEK 11.582286
SGD 1.41671
SHP 0.83048
SLE 23.881015
SLL 22063.060321
SOS 601.301259
SRD 37.200331
STD 21777.376683
SVC 9.205387
SYP 2643.557801
SZL 19.154703
THB 36.838902
TJS 11.214312
TMT 3.682524
TND 3.316347
TOP 2.464243
TRY 36.140494
TTD 7.143092
TWD 34.320603
TZS 2798.718783
UAH 43.369431
UGX 3860.806867
USD 1.05215
UYU 44.693036
UZS 13467.517223
VES 47.823448
VND 26724.605049
VUV 124.913339
WST 2.937172
XAF 655.402482
XAG 0.034478
XAU 0.00041
XCD 2.843488
XDR 0.792537
XOF 652.851937
XPF 119.331742
YER 262.879515
ZAR 19.237481
ZMK 9470.611478
ZMW 28.851686
ZWL 338.791808
  • RBGPF

    -0.9400

    59.25

    -1.59%

  • RYCEF

    -0.3200

    6.79

    -4.71%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    24.55

    -0.24%

  • SCS

    -0.1000

    13.27

    -0.75%

  • RELX

    -0.1700

    45.95

    -0.37%

  • JRI

    -0.0300

    13.21

    -0.23%

  • NGG

    0.2500

    62.37

    +0.4%

  • BCC

    -2.2000

    140.35

    -1.57%

  • GSK

    -0.7200

    34.39

    -2.09%

  • RIO

    -0.1900

    60.43

    -0.31%

  • VOD

    -0.0700

    8.68

    -0.81%

  • CMSD

    -0.0050

    24.725

    -0.02%

  • BCE

    -0.3700

    26.84

    -1.38%

  • AZN

    -0.2500

    65.04

    -0.38%

  • BTI

    0.0700

    35.49

    +0.2%

  • BP

    0.4800

    29.05

    +1.65%

Crossing the line: Texans facing ban at home seek abortions next door
Crossing the line: Texans facing ban at home seek abortions next door / Photo: Robyn Beck - AFP

Crossing the line: Texans facing ban at home seek abortions next door

When 30-year-old "F" learned that she was pregnant for the eighth time, she just wanted to cry.

Text size:

A homemaker dependent on her husband's income, she agonized for three weeks about what to do, but always came to the same conclusion: "I can't have this child."

But then she was hit by a second problem.

F's home state of Texas recently made getting an abortion a lot harder, one of a number of conservative parts of the United States where the political tide has turned against the procedure -- despite broad support for abortion rights among the American public.

A new law bans almost all abortions after six weeks, before many women know they're pregnant -- meaning that in Texas, terminating a pregnancy often means traveling out of state.

Following Friday's Supreme Court ruling, striking down the national right to an abortion and allowing states to enact tough restrictions or outright bans, that will be the reality for millions more women.

For F, it's a relatively short drive -- 45 minutes from her El Paso home sits the small New Mexico town of Santa Teresa, where the Women's Reproductive Health Clinic has been operating since 2015 under the state's more liberal laws.

- Attacks -

Some have travelled much further.

"The hardest part for me was figuring out how I was gonna get here," says Ehrece, a 35-year-old engineer who came more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) from Dallas on a journey that ended with a taxi ride.

"I had the cab driver drop me off at the gas station down the street. And then I kind of walked here, so no one would know where I was going."

Ehrece, who is in a stable relationship and says she doesn't want children yet for professional reasons, has good reasons to be cautious.

Texas' new law allows individuals to sue anyone involved -- no matter how tangentially -- in an abortion. That includes not only the doctor or nurse who gives care, but even the Uber driver who takes the woman to the clinic.

"They don't make it easy for you," said Emily, a 35-year-old yoga teacher who doesn't want to become a mother.

"You're worried that someone's going to attack you outside the clinic or some nut with a gun is going to come in."

- 'How many weeks?' -

The protesters who gather outside the clinic don't scare owner Dr Franz Theard.

The 73-year-old obstetrician has been performing abortions since the 1980s; when he began it was amid a wave of violent attacks in the United States that left doctors dead or wounded.

"We've been very fortunate that the state of New Mexico has very liberal laws," he told AFP.

"We have certification for everything. But they're not hounding us every day.

"We have to provide reports in Texas, we have to give a report every month of every patient."

Theard no longer performs surgical abortions, prescribing only abortion by pill: one tablet of Mifepristone, which prevents the pregnancy from progressing, and four tablets of Misoprostol the next day, to induce bleeding.

In the waiting room, assistant Rocio Negrete fields calls from prospective patients.

"How many weeks along are you?" she asks. "We have appointments but we can only see you if it's up to week 10."

Surgical abortions are available in New Mexico later into pregnancy, but abortion by pill is only allowed to around week 10.

Negrete says she is taking an increasing number of calls from people in other states.

But some women, out of fear or for economic reasons -- the procedure costs $700 -- cross another border in search of alternatives.

- 'It's exhausting' -

Half an hour's drive south takes you to the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, where a box of 28 Misoprostol tablets -- labelled as treatment for ulcers -- is available for between $20 and $50 at numerous pharmacies.

Mifepristone is harder to come by, but AFP did find it.

"Women buy this and don't know how to take it," said one pharmacist in Ciudad Juarez with a box of Misoprostol in his hands.

"It's a danger, they can hemorrhage, so it's better to see a doctor."

Back in Santa Teresa, all the women a reporter spoke to said it was vital legal abortions remained available.

"If a woman wants to have an abortion, then she's going to have one," said Ehrece.

"There's going to be all types of illegal things going on where women can potentially kill themselves because there's no one to support them, and there's nowhere that they can go where you can safely do something about it."

"It's exhausting. Honestly, it doesn't make sense that in this age -- in 2022 -- we can't make our own free decisions about what we want to do."

E.Leuenberger--NZN