Texans are Going out of State to get Abortions, According to New Records
Photo courtesy of MedPageToday.
The Texas Heartbeat Act (Senate Bill 8) took effect on Sep. 1, 2021. New Planned Parenthood data shows that abortions in Texas fell by 60% in the first month under the Texas Heartbeat Act. Some TAMU-CC students spoke out in defense of women’s rights over their bodies.
In Feb. 2022, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America released new data revealing the impact of Texas’ six-week abortion ban on nearby states. According to this data, Planned Parenthood health centers in surrounding states, including New Mexico, Colorado, Louisiana, Kansas, and Missouri, saw a nearly 800% increase in abortion patients from Texas between Sep. 1 and Dec. 31, 2021.
“Restricting the access to abortion after six weeks, or when a “heartbeat” can be detected, is dangerous for many reasons. One, a person may not even know they are pregnant by this point, the timing of the last menstrual cycle influences this and restricts abortion access for those who didn’t immediately know. Secondly, more marginalized communities and those with lower income are hit harder, building economic barriers for those who can’t afford to travel out of state after six weeks. Also, the bill has a sneaky loophole: rather than punishing those who seek abortion, the bill puts a bounty up to $10,000 on the heads of anyone who helps someone seek the procedure, meaning clinics and doctors feel threatened and many shut down quickly. This impacts anyone in Texas seeking abortions with an inaccurate timeline restriction, and threatens legal action upon those who help seek abortion,” stated Molly Davis, Co-President of the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islander Feminists Group and sophomore marketing major.
The Texas six-week abortion ban, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021, prohibits abortions as early as six weeks and entitles any private citizen to collect $10,000 or more for bringing a successful lawsuit against someone who has performed or helped a woman with an abortion after the six-week time period.
“It’s sad that it’s necessary to travel out of state to somewhere that allows you to have control over your body. Lower income communities can hardly afford the procedure in the first place, let alone the expenses of gas/transportation, sleep accommodations, food, and medicine for after the procedure, and other expenses,” Davis said.
The new data shows patients from Texas make up more than half of the total number of abortion patients at Planned Parenthood health centers in Oklahoma. There was a more than 1,000% increase in Texas abortion patients at Planned Parenthood health centers in Colorado compared to previous years. Additionally, there was over an 100% increase in abortion patients with Texas zip codes at Planned Parenthood health centers in New Mexico compared to the previous year.
Some Islander students agreed with Davis, saying that women who wish to seek an abortion should be able to safely undergo the procedure in Texas. An anonymous TAMU-CC student stated, “it’s devastating that Texas women have to travel out of state for abortions. We should be able to go to our local clinics for an abortion. As women, it’s our right to choose what we do with our own bodies.”
Another anonymous TAMU-CC student stated, “as a woman, I personally would never get an abortion. However, I think every woman should have the right to make that decision for herself. Women are going to have abortions anyways, so they shouldn’t have to go out of state or seek dangerous, unhealthy ways of terminating their pregnancies.”
For more information on the newly released Planned Parenthood data, visit:
Adrianna Wooldridge is a senior pursuing a Biomedical Sciences degree. Adrianna aspires to become a physician and is passionate about public health. She...
