Preview of 'a post-Roe world' in Texas over abortion access

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas offers a glimpse in real time of what would be a striking new national landscape if the Supreme Court drastically curtails abortion rights: GOP-led states allowing almost no access to abortion, and women traveling hundreds of miles to end their pregnancies.

No longer a distant prospect, both sides of the ever-contentious abortion debate are actively preparing for life after Roe v. Wade.

What will happen if the Supreme Court uses its pending case from Mississippi to undo a nationwide right to an abortion that has been in place since 1973? Texas has been there for three months.

On Sept. 1, a state law took effect banning abortion at roughly six weeks, before some women even know they are pregnant. And so far, the Supreme Court has declined to block it — showing no urgency as it allows the nation's most restrictive abortion law in more than 50 years to stay on the books.

“What we've experienced the past three months in Texas is a preview of a post-Roe world," said John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, the state's largest anti-abortion group.

“You will have conservative states that take very bold pro-life laws to protect pregnant women and innocent children from abortion. And then you have states that become destination states where people are traveling."

For Texas women, those destinations since September have included not only neighboring Oklahoma and Louisiana — states where GOP lawmakers could also move to further restrict abortion depending on the forthcoming opinion by the Supreme Court — but as far as away as the West and East coasts, according to abortion providers and their allies. Some Texas providers say patient volume at their clinics has plummeted to just a third of the usual levels.

During nearly two hours of...