The 24 hours after Belle found out she was unexpectedly pregnant were a blur of phone calls, highways and panic. Her home state of Texas had recently outlawed the right to an abortion after around six weeks, leaving her just days to secure a procedure in a region where there’s a dearth of clinics.
Belle and her husband didn’t want to risk her health with a pregnancy — she is diabetic — nor the economic stability they had worked so hard to build. So they raced to meet the new legal deadline, dialing clinics in-and-out of state, cashing in their savings, and driving through the night to get a scarce appointment on Christmas Day.
“It was overwhelming. There was no time to really think about it. You have to make a decision, right then and there,” said Belle, who is in her early 30s, speaking from her Dallas apartment in May. “I was just in such a rush to figure everything out.”
