Texas patients are rushing to get abortions before the state’s six-week limit. Clinics are struggling to keep up.

With Texas’s strict abortion ban still in effect, patients have been forced to wait weeks for an appointment — disqualifying many who otherwise would have been able to access abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
Feb 14, 2022

When the woman started crying in the ultrasound room, Joe Nelson tried to comfort her, as he has comforted dozens of other patients who are too far along to get an abortion in Texas.

She was a single mother with two kids at home, experiencing a rare pregnancy condition that had left her too nauseous to work, said Nelson, a doctor at Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion clinic in Austin. The woman was over the legal limit established by Texas’s restrictive new law, Nelson said, but just barely. A few days earlier, he could have performed the abortion.

Continued:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/14/texas-abortion-sb8

Abortion care is a ‘calling’ for this Texas doctor. Now he faces a dilemma: Risk lawsuits, or quit.

Joe Nelson is weighing his options as courts weigh in on the nation’s strictest abortion ban

Caroline Kitchener
October 8, 2021

AUSTIN — Joe Nelson arrived at the abortion clinic at 8:30 a.m. on Sept. 8. The doctor made himself a cup of coffee, chatted with the receptionist, then settled into a desk cluttered with paperwork and maxi pads. He answered some emails. Then he opened his book on Zen Buddhism and read.

He did not see a patient for almost two hours.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/abortion-care-is-a-calling-for-this-texas-doctor-now-he-faces-a-dilemma-risk-lawsuits-or-quit/

Despite latest court ruling blocking Texas abortion law, most providers are still reluctant to defy ban

by Caroline Kitchener, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, Ann E. Marimow and Casey Parks
Oct 7, 2021

Abortions after six weeks of pregnancy were allowed in Texas on Thursday for the first time since the nation’s most restrictive abortion law went into effect there on Sept. 1. Some abortion providers resumed offering the procedure after a federal judge issued an order Wednesday evening blocking enforcement. But many providers said they would keep complying with the ban until the legal issues are resolved.

Less than two hours after U.S. District Judge Robert L. Pitman granted the Biden administration’s request for an injunction, Texas said it would appeal to the conservative-leaning U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. Regardless of how the appeals court rules, the issue could quickly make its way back to the Supreme Court, which last month turned down a request by abortion providers to stop the law from taking effect.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/10/07/texas-abortion-injunction-reaction/

In seeking emergency halt on Texas ban, Justice Dept. describes women, girls desperately seeking abortions out of state

by Ann E. Marimow and Caroline Kitchener
September 15, 2021

One woman piled her children into the car and drove more than 15 hours overnight from Texas to Oklahoma to obtain an abortion using medication. A minor from Galveston, who was raped by a family member, traveled eight hours across state lines to terminate her pregnancy. Another patient made the six-hour trek for an out-of-state abortion alone, fearing that anyone who joined her in the car could face legal liability under Texas’s stringent new abortion ban.

The testimonials from providers about the impact of the nation’s most restrictive abortion law are included in the Biden administration’s emergency request to a federal judge in Austin filed late Tuesday night. It seeks to immediately block enforcement of the law, which bans abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy and makes no exceptions for rape, sexual abuse or incest.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/15/texas-abortion-justice-department-block/

USA – Abortion Access Is Under Threat As Coronavirus Spreads

Abortion Access Is Under Threat As Coronavirus Spreads
In many states, abortion clinics are holding on by a thread. The pandemic might put them under.

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
03/17/2020

Last week, Joe Nelson, a physician who provides abortions in Texas, felt a tickle in his throat. Then he started coughing. His temperature soared. On Monday, at his doctor’s office, he tested negative for the flu. Unable to obtain a coronavirus test there, he is now self-quarantining for 14 days.

In a phone call with HuffPost as he left the doctor’s office, Nelson said he was mostly worried about how his unplanned absence might affect women’s ability to get abortions in the state.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/abortion-access-coronavirus_n_5e70f423c5b60fb69ddee6e9?ri18n=true