Oklahoma Abortion Numbers Up As Texas Heartbeat Law Takes Affect
OKLAHOMA CITY (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) — A strict new abortion law in Texas is having an impact in bordering states, including at a women's clinic in Oklahoma where workers say they're seeing a significant increase in out-of-state patients seeking abortions.
"We've been preparing for this for a while as best that we can," explained Rebecca Tong, co-executive director of Trust Women Clinic.
In the few days before the Texas abortion law went into effect, the Trust Women Clinic said they were scheduling nearly five times their normal number of patients.
Clinic officials say they saw 11 patients from Texas in August. So far in September there have been at least 110.
"If it was an ideal situation, I would say we could open the clinic 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and see as many people as we could. That's not physically possible," Tong said.
The clinic has decided to cap appointments to keep its patient load at a manageable level. Tong said, "It's not something that we do lightly and we know what it means for people to be turned away from this service and it changes the direction and course of their life."
The law in Texas says doctors can't perform an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which typically happens about six-weeks after conception. That is often before many women even know they're pregnant.
The Texas law also has no exceptions for rape and incest.