From xxxxxx <[email protected]>
Subject Patients Sat in Abortion Clinic Waiting Rooms As Roe Fell. They All Had To Be Turned Away.
Date June 26, 2022 12:00 AM
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[In states with “trigger” laws, abortion services came to a
halt on Friday morning as news rippled through clinic lobbies and
patients, whose appointments were minutes outside of the window to
receive care, had to be turned away.]
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PATIENTS SAT IN ABORTION CLINIC WAITING ROOMS AS ROE FELL. THEY ALL
HAD TO BE TURNED AWAY.  
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Chabeli Carrazana

The 19th
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_ In states with “trigger” laws, abortion services came to a halt
on Friday morning as news rippled through clinic lobbies and patients,
whose appointments were minutes outside of the window to receive care,
had to be turned away. _

A procedural table is set up for the next patient to receive a
surgical abortion at the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the
Mississippi clinic at the center of the case that overturned Roe v.
Wade., (photo by Erin Clark/The Boston Globe).

 

Patients were in the lobby, waiting, the moment it became a post-Roe
America.

The staff at Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services Clinic in San
Antonio had just received a call from their attorney: Abortion
procedures in Texas would have to stop immediately. The dozen or so
patients in the lobby Friday morning would have to be turned away. The
clinic staff would have to be the ones to tell them. 

Andrea Gallegos, the clinic’s administrator, and the rest of the
staff walked out and addressed the room: “The Supreme Court made
this decision today and, unfortunately, your geographical location
affects your bodily autonomy,” she said they told waiting
patients. 

Gallegos watched each word land like a blow. People cried. They
screamed. They begged for help, she said. It was “complete
despair.” 

Hours later, the clinic had emptied of all but those who had received
their abortions hours or minutes before Roe v. Wade, the 50-year-old
court case that enshrined abortion as a right, was overturned by the
Supreme Court Friday, leaving the question of abortion access up to
individual states. Only those with follow-up appointments could be
seen. 

Gallegos and her staff called about 20 people who were scheduled to
come in later that day. Some were caught off guard, Gallegos said.
“Why today? Why the day of _their_ appointment did this happen?”
patients told her.

Those turned away were patients who were now outside an already small
window: In September, Texas banned abortion past six weeks of
pregnancy. That law was the first in a series of abortion restrictions
passed in states across the country in the last year that served as a
preview of life after Roe.

Texas also has a “trigger” law that would ban abortions from the
moment of conception and would go into effect as soon as about two
months from now
[[link removed]].
But in the chaos of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, clinics across
the state chose to cease all abortion services in the case that the
ban would come into effect even sooner. Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton said Friday that, under a separate pre-Roe ban in the state,
“abortion providers could be criminally liable
[[link removed]] for
providing abortions starting today.”

Across Texas and other states where trigger bans are in place and
where, hour-by-hour, abortion is being completely outlawed, the same
scene was playing out simultaneously: Waiting rooms were emptied.
Waitlists were pulled up. Phone calls were made to people who had
their abortions scheduled.

At Whole Woman’s Health clinics across Texas, staff received notice
in a conference call Friday morning. Marva Sadler, the senior director
for clinical services for Whole Woman’s, an abortion provider with
locations in five states, said clinic managers brought patients in
from the lobby one by one to deliver the news. 

“Each patient was given the opportunity to have their reactions and
their emotions privately,” Sadler said, conversations clinic staff
had become well-versed in having over the 10 months since Texas’
ban had passed
[[link removed]]. 

It was difficult to be an abortion provider in the only state at the
time to ban the procedure so early in gestation, Sadler said.

Those turned away were patients who were now outside an already small
window: In September, Texas banned abortion past six weeks of
pregnancy. That law was the first in a series of abortion restrictions
passed in states across the country in the last year that served as a
preview of life after Roe.

Texas also has a “trigger” law that would ban abortions from the
moment of conception and would go into effect as soon as about two
months from now
[[link removed]].
But in the chaos of Friday’s Supreme Court ruling, clinics across
the state chose to cease all abortion services in the case that the
ban would come into effect even sooner. Texas Attorney General Ken
Paxton said Friday that, under a separate pre-Roe ban in the state,
“abortion providers could be criminally liable
[[link removed]] for
providing abortions starting today.”

Across Texas and other states where trigger bans are in place and
where, hour-by-hour, abortion is being completely outlawed, the same
scene was playing out simultaneously: Waiting rooms were emptied.
Waitlists were pulled up. Phone calls were made to people who had
their abortions scheduled.

At Whole Woman’s Health clinics across Texas, staff received notice
in a conference call Friday morning. Marva Sadler, the senior director
for clinical services for Whole Woman’s, an abortion provider with
locations in five states, said clinic managers brought patients in
from the lobby one by one to deliver the news. 

“Each patient was given the opportunity to have their reactions and
their emotions privately,” Sadler said, conversations clinic staff
had become well-versed in having over the 10 months since Texas’
ban had passed
[[link removed]]. 

It was difficult to be an abortion provider in the only state at the
time to ban the procedure so early in gestation, Sadler said.

Clinic staff is gripped by uncertainty. Many have been providing
abortion services for decades. A physician at the San Antonio clinic
was providing abortions pre-Roe, Gallegos said — and now he must
consider how he will do that “post-Roe,” she notes. Sadler has
been working to provide abortion access for about two decades. 

She said the fall of Roe only strengthens her determination, and that
of her colleagues, to continue providing reproductive care, in
whatever form, as long as they’re able. 

Her staff is standing by, she said. 

“If I told them we could see patients at midnight tonight,” Sadler
said, “I have no doubt that every last one of them would show up
without question.” 

_CHABELI CARRAZANA is our economy reporter. Previously, she worked as
a business reporter for the Miami Herald, where she covered the
tourism industry, and the Orlando Sentinel, where she covered NASA,
the private space industry and labor issues._

_The 19th is a nonprofit newsroom supported by a mix of membership,
philanthropy and corporate underwriting. Our goal is long-term
sustainability to support a lasting future for news and information at
the intersection of gender, politics and policy. _

_All of the money we raise goes back into our journalism — and we
list all donors and corporate sponsors who’ve given $25,000 or more
on our website. Any donor or sponsor at this level who’s mentioned
in a story will be identified in that story. _

_Donors and sponsors don’t get a thumb on the scale; they play no
role in our journalism, in our storytelling or in the planning and
execution of our events._

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