States use coronavirus to ban abortions, leaving women desperate: ‘You can’t pause a pregnancy’

Article originally appeared in The Guardian on April 30th, 2020.

Even under normal circumstances, obtaining an abortion in Texas is described as “mostly impossible”. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, politicians in Texas and seven other states have worked to try to halt abortions entirely. They have undertaken costly lawsuits to restrict abortion in the name of health and safety, even as doctors lined up against them.

Experts have described the order as the most chaotic 30 days since 2013, when Texas imposed severe restrictions on abortion clinics, later overturned by the supreme court.