NY Times: “One woman piled her children into the car and drove more than 15 hours overnight from Texas to Kansas to obtain an abortion using medication. A minor from Galveston, who was raped by a family member, traveled eight hours to Oklahoma to terminate her pregnancy. Another patient made the six-hour trek for an out-of-state abortion alone, fearing that anyone who joined her in the car could face legal liability under Texas’s new abortion ban.
The testimonials from providers about the impact of the nation’s most restrictive abortion law were included in the Biden administration’s emergency request to a federal judge in Austin to immediately block enforcement of the law, which bans abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy and makes no exceptions for rape, sexual abuse or incest. The request was filed late Tuesday night.
The law, which took effect this month after the Supreme Court refused to block its enforcement, has “gravely and irreparably impaired women’s ability to exercise their constitutional right to an abortion across the State,” it says, adding that women with the ability to travel are seeking access to abortions in Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado. Clinics in neighboring states are also receiving “panicked calls” from Texas patients and seeing large increases in patients younger than 18, survivors of sexual assault, older patients and cases involving serious fetal anomalies, according to the filing.”