By Paola Ramos and Kay Guerrero —
NBC News
Six weeks after a young Salvadoran asylum seeker crossed into the United States from Mexico, she realized she was pregnant as a result of rape.
The woman - who, like the others interviewed for this story, is not identified for security reasons - said she was sexually assaulted by the Mexican cartel that was holding her hostage in the dangerous border city of Reynosa, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. , a few kilometers from the border with the United States.
Once in Texas and unable to obtain an abortion, she found herself caught between the US immigration system and the state's abortion ban.
MSNBC
It's not the only one.
She is part of the alarming number of immigrants who enter the United States with unwanted pregnancies.
She is also a victim of a disturbing pattern of violence emerging on the Mexican side of the border, where cartels systematically kidnap and ransom migrants heading north.
Those who cannot pay with money do so with their bodies.
Without knowing English and overwhelmed by the complex legal landscape surrounding reproductive rights, the migrant turned to online forums to find information on how to access abortion pills.
That's how he knew he needed a dose of mifepristone and misoprostol, the regimen approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the medical termination of pregnancy, and banned in 14 Republican states, including Texas, since the Supreme Court overturned it in 2022. Roe v. Wade.
Fearful of what might happen to her in Texas, she traveled to a nearby state to undergo a self-managed medical abortion.
“I felt ashamed of myself.
It was as if my head was telling me that everyone knew, but in reality, no one knew anything,” the woman said.