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Volunteer Christie in front of the abortion clinic: »I'm a woman, not a womb«
Photo:
Annie Mulligan / THE MIRROR
A little after 7 a.m., a security guard rolls open the gate to the Houston Women's Clinic.
At the red clinker building, one of the few abortion clinics in the city, cars pull up every minute.
The announcement that the Supreme Court will soon abolish the right to an abortion is only a day old.
The women who are gradually leaving have one thing in common: they have made an existential decision.
Christie, 75, helps women disembark here.
She has been working as a volunteer in front of the clinic for around four years.
Over her black T-shirt, the woman with the gray curls wears a rainbow-colored vest with the words »CLINIC ESCORT« on it.
When the abortion opponents, who are not allowed on the premises, shout their slogans over the fence with a microphone and amplifier to discourage the women from entering the clinic, Christie puts a protective arm around the patients – and brings them inside unmolested.
The Houston Women's Clinic does not offer any standard gynecological services, it specializes solely in abortion, whether by pills or surgery.
There is a park bench by the front door, with a sign next to it that reads Keep Abortions Legal and one that says Handguns Not Allowed.
“Many of the women I accompany to the clinic are anxious, insecure, panicked.
Others are pretty confident because they know exactly what they want,” says Christie.
She, too, once knew what she wanted.
However, it was so long ago that she no longer remembers the exact year of her abortion.
"I was in my mid-thirties and absolutely incapable of raising a child." Back in the late 1970s, a few years after the Roe decision, abortions were readily available.
You just got an appointment, says Christie.
»Roe v.
Wade” was one of the most important decisions in American judicial history.
It was hailed as a milestone by the feminist movement.
Women leave it up to themselves to decide whether to conceive.
Later, the follow-up ruling, Planned Parenthood v. Casey, guaranteed that abortion was legal until the fetus was viable outside the womb—usually 24 weeks gestation.
Conservative judges could drastically limit abortion rights
Now, however, the conservative majority of Supreme Court justices »Roe v.
Wade« tip.
This would give Republican-governed states the opportunity to severely restrict or ban abortion altogether.
Some of them have already passed tough anti-abortion laws: in Florida and Kentucky, abortions are banned after the 15th week in most cases, in Texas they are illegal after the sixth week of pregnancy since 2021 if the fetus is found to have a heartbeat.
Similar legislation was recently signed in Oklahoma and Idaho.
In some cases, courts have temporarily suspended these laws, backed by federal jurisprudence.
But the conservative parts of the US, particularly in the South and Midwest, are purposefully working toward Day X.
13 states, including Texas, have passed so-called "trigger laws" that would come into force immediately or shortly after a possible end of "Roe" and would make abortion a criminal offense in most cases.
When Christie received news of the Supreme Court's draft verdict on Monday evening, she was initially shocked.
Then just angry.
The fight must go on, she says, more than ever.
Christie believes that if the country's conservatives, politicians and religious fanatics had their way, women would only have one job: "to be incubators."
more on the subject
The Supreme Court and Abortion Law: Battle for America's Last SanctuaryBy Gabrielle Hauth, René Pfister and Daniel C. Schmidt, Houston and Washington
Today, at least, Christie has no trouble with anti-abortionists.
They often block the entrance to the clinic.
This morning just a young man in a shirt, pleated trousers and sunglasses kneels at the gate and prays silently to himself.
With his fingers he dangles along a silver rosary.
His name is Joel Cruz.
He is 28 years old and a "devout Christian," as he puts it.
It is God's will that the babies in the tummies of the patients at the Houston Women's Clinic should not be aborted, but come into the world.
Basically, says Cruz when asked, he is for gender equality.
But abortions go too far for him.
Karina, 23 years old, no longer has a choice.
The state of Texas took it away from her.
The young woman is sitting on a chair under a parasol in front of the clinic.
Yesterday she had her first appointment, she is in the sixth week of pregnancy.
A heartbeat could not be heard from the fetus.
At her second appointment, which was over a few minutes ago, he was suddenly there.
That means she can't get an abortion anywhere in Texas, a state almost twice the size of Germany.
This is what the current legislation wants.
Karina seems confused, depressed, but still wants to talk.
»At the moment I'm a bit shocked, I don't know how it will continue.
My friend will pick me up soon.
We'll have to talk about it.” She fights back tears.
"Maybe I could try going to another state and getting an appointment there."
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Kulturkampf in the USA: Why is abortion law in the USA now on the brink?By Anna-Sophie Schneider
That would be a complex, costly affair.
A non-profit organization would have paid her around $700 for the abortion, if it could have taken place.
Financially, she says, they cannot afford to raise another child at the moment.
She works at Amazon in a warehouse and has to take care of her two daughters on the side.
They are one and four years old.
The end of »Roe« will primarily affect those who cannot afford to drive hundreds of kilometers.
Democratically governed states like Illinois or California have deliberately made access to abortion easier in their laws, with foresight.
Kathy Kleinfeld, who runs another abortion clinic in Houston, doesn't think demand for abortions will decrease as a result.
Some women would go to Mexico or Canada, others would order abortion pills online, she says.
"Women have always been imaginative."
Unfortunately, she says, the new methods are not safe and not regulated.
The US already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among industrialized nations.
This, Kleinfeld fears, could then increase significantly again.
The anger about the Supreme Court discharged the night before.
Demonstrators march between downtown Houston's office towers, raising metal hangers in the air.
Abortion with clothes hangers, that is to say, could soon be a common practice again in the United States.
It's a scary idea.
more on the subject
Abortion, LGBTQ*: Frontal attack on free US society Marc Pitzke reports from Los Angeles
The women who take to the streets in anger and desperation have one simple request: they would like to be able to control their own bodies.
Their signs say "My body is not a political playground" or "I'm a woman, not a womb".
Mary, one of the speakers at the head of the demonstration, speaks into a microphone: "If a friend tells me she's pregnant, I want to live in a world where I can easily say, 'Shall we go and choose baby clothes? or do you want me to take you to an abortion clinic?'”
The next day, at the Houston Women's Clinic, it's a few minutes before Karina's boyfriend pulls up in the parking lot to give her a ride home.
She needs some more time to sort her thoughts, she says, before she gets in the car.
"But once you've heard the heartbeat, it doesn't make the decision any easier."