A doctor from Texas has revealed the realities of the last day before the controversial law to ban almost all abortions in the state took action.
The law, signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May prohibits terminations after medical professionals detect cardiac activity. This is the time when many women are not aware they are pregnant.
People can also sue doctors and any other person who assists in an abortion. It could be anyone from family members or friends who drive a woman past the time that the heartbeat can detect to those who drive her to the appointment. The citizen who reported the incident can receive $10,000 in damages if a successful lawsuit is won.
Before the law took effect at midnight on September 1, Jasbir Ahluwalia worked through the night to complete 67 abortions at the Whole Woman’s Health clinic in Fort Worth.
The 83-year-old OB-GYN candidly opened up to VICE and said: “Nobody cared for their own welfare. The workers – they want to take care of the patients. That was an amazing, amazing attitude I saw for the first time in all these 50 years of practice of medicine.”
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“We were joking, ‘There was plenty of food in the break room’ – nobody would go”, he added.
“They wanted to take care of every patient, bring them in, move and move and move. I saw tremendous, tremendous teamwork that night.”
“This was like, ‘We’re going to fight a war.’ This is a war against the politicians, and we’re going to fight and win. We’re not going to turn around anybody.
“And it went on by the book. We did not take any shortcuts. Everything was done properly. I was really amazed.”
After the ban on abortion was implemented, he returned to work and told VICE: “You couldn’t imagine the difference between night and day.
“And there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a law, it’s in effect, we have to observe it.”