Longer lines, delay in abortion care expected

Four-five week wait time for care commonplace in reproductive healthcare

The recent Texas ruling limiting access to mifepristone will likely force people to get abortions at later stages of pregnancy. Previously, they could get care before six weeks. Now they may have to wait until the 12th week or later. 

“That's going to delay those folks and then further delay other people,” said Mariely Neris Rodriguez, director of client services at the Brigid Alliance, an abortion fund based in New York. 

The alliance is referral-based. Patients have to have an appointment for care to qualify for assistance. Once they have that, the alliance will help with things like lodging and transportation. 

The average assistance they give amounts to $1,400. Most people have to travel at least 600 miles to get abortion care. 

Rodriguez said they have seen clinics already book appointments five weeks into the future when someone calls. Half of the people they support live in the South. Most of those individuals travel to New York, Washington D.C. or the Maryland area. 

The alliance is well-funded, but it is short-staffed. 

“The limitations that we have are in the human capacity,” Rodriguez said. “We only have a specific number of people in the team who can manage cases. And once those people are at capacity, then we may need to delay being able to support more folks.” 

Rodriguez said that the only thing these antiabortion laws are doing is causing them to seek unsafe and unregulated abortions, as well as rely on questionable information online to do so. 

“If the idea here is to deny people access to abortions, that is not really happening,” Rodriguez said.