A 17-year-old teen in Houston was forced to travel more than 1,500 miles from home to get abortion care following Texas' ban on the procedure. Her case marks the chilling effect of the ban and underscores the challenges faced by those seeking abortion care in states where the procedure is heavily restricted or outright banned.
The 17-year-old teen, who was only identified as J, wanted to end her pregnancy. However, Texas has a strict abortion law, forcing her to travel 1,500 miles over a two-day period to get her pregnancy terminated at a tiny clinic in New Mexico.
Her story, shared by Houston Landing, is one of the many showing the perilous journey Texan women have to take to get an abortion. Unfortunately, traveling out of the state for abortion could soon be banned.
Texas' Ban on Abortion
The state enacted its most significant ban on abortion in September 2021 as part of an act known as the Texas Heartbeat Act. Under the ban, abortions are banned after approximately six weeks of pregnancy, which is often before many women even know they are pregnant.
This has forced women in Texas to leave the state to end their pregnancies. In fact, Texas leads the nation for the most number of women traveling out-of-state for abortions, with over 34,000 women leaving the state in 2023 to get the procedure, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute.
However, this journey may not be possible in the future, especially after Texas sued for the right to access the medical records of women seeking out-of-state abortions. Women who obtain abortions are not subject to criminal prosecution, but Texas imposes penalties, including life in prison, for those who aid them in terminating the pregnancy.
In addition, five Texas counties enacted travel bans aimed at preventing its residents from leaving the state to get abortions.
How Texas' Ban on Abortion Affected Women
Since the state banned abortion in 2021, the rate of maternal deaths shot up to 56% in 2022. In comparison, the nationwide rate during the same period was only 11%. A July study from Johns Hopkins also found that infant deaths in Texas rose by 12.9% in the immediate months after the ban was enacted compared to a 1.8% increase in infant deaths across the US.
