What It’s Like, Day 3: The Trek Home from Albuquerque

Before getting in the car to start her long journey home, she takes a few ibuprofen to alleviate cramps and lines her underwear with a pad to catch any bleeding.

She has a long drive ahead of her — one she wouldn’t have to make if lawmakers in states like Texas had respected the will of the majority of Americans who want to keep abortion legal. It’s up to us — Planned Parenthood Action Fund, our allies, and you — to change the laws in states where abortion is now banned and to restore and expand access wherever we can. 

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It’s on us — all of us — to fight for laws that allow abortion access no matter where you live, and to make it easier for abortion providers to work in states where abortion is still legal — to help so many more patients get the care they need and deserve. 

8:32 p.m. San Antonio, Texas

Rebecca finally gets home after driving nearly 24 hours in three days just to get an abortion, a procedure that took as little as five to ten minutes.

She would never have had to make such a journey if lawmakers in states like Texas respected the will of the majority of Texans — and the entire country — who want to keep abortion legal. 

Unfortunately, years of gerrymandering and voter suppression in her state have helped anti-abortion politicians hold on to power even as they go against what the majority of their constituents want. The anti-abortion rights majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has enabled those state lawmakers to strip away access to care.

While voters in many states resoundingly rejected anti-abortion extremism, a majority of lawmakers in states like Rebecca’s still support abortion bans. So the fight continues. 

* This is a fictional story — based in part on real stories from patients facing the abortion access crisis in the United States.

Image at Top: A stylized photo originally taken by Flickr member Ken Lund. Photo published under a Creative Commons license. View original