By Chloe Atkins -
NBC News
Amy Hagstrom Miller has said in the past two months that her abortion clinics have come to a standstill since the state of Texas imposed the most restrictive procedural law in the country, cutting off access before most know she is pregnant.
"It's like we're frozen in time," said Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman's Health and Whole Woman's Health Alliance. "My staff have to say no all the time, which is psychologically and emotionally draining because they are trained to serve everyone, but under this law, they must serve as agents of the state and deny health care to people." .
Legislation known as SB 8 went into effect in September and restricts abortions once the embryo's cardiac activity is detected,
which usually occurs around six weeks' gestation.
As a consequence, women are carrying their unwanted pregnancies to term, or crossing state lines to gain access to the procedure.
The legislation allows people to sue abortion providers, after the time limit, and seek damages of at least $ 10,000 per defendant.
The operating room at the Whole Woman's Health clinic in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2019.Tony Gutierrez / AP
Compliance with the near-total ban on abortion has dramatically reduced the volume of women receiving care in the state. The number of abortions performed in Texas in September decreased 50% relative to the same month in 2020, according to the University of Texas at Austin Policy Assessment Project. Meanwhile, providers have reduced or stopped providing most of their abortion services, ultimately putting many independent clinics, such as Whole Woman's Health, at risk.
Freestanding clinics, which are often for profit, are vulnerable to abortion restrictions because they
lack the visibility, institutional support, and financial resources of other providers such as Planned Parenthood
, to comply with new regulations and keep their doors open while cases progress through the judicial system.
Supreme Court Discusses Challenges to Texas Abortion Law
Nov. 1, 202101: 39
"These are clinics that survive day by day. They don't have a great safety net that can help them through difficult times like this," said Molly Duane, senior attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents several clinics in Texas that challenge the prohibition".
"Doctors,
who have been fighting to provide abortion services to patients, may no longer be able to do so in a week or a month
because the state of Texas passed a blatantly institutional law."
What is unique about the Texas law prohibiting abortion after the sixth week?
Sept.
2, 202102: 45
Independent clinics provide three out of five abortions in the United States each year.
Despite representing 25% of the facilities that offer health services, independent clinics perform more than half of the abortions in the country.
