The pandemic has shut down nearly all cities and states across the country. Essential businesses and medical providers are allowed to remain open, but there are differing ideas on what’s “essential”.
Some states have banned “non-essential” medical procedures citing the need to conserve personal protective equipment like surgical masks and gowns for hospitals. Officials in several of those states, including Texas and Arkansas, have said that ban includes abortion.
Abortion rights advocates see this as an abuse of power, and some, including the Center for Reproductive Rights, are fighting the bans in court.
With nowhere to go, some Texas residents have traveled as far as Nevada to get an abortion.
But now a new order from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that took effect Wednesday allows more abortion procedures to resume in health care facilities that agree to reserve a certain number of beds for coronavirus patients and refrain from seeking scarce protective equipment from public sources.
We’ll talk to both sides of the issue, including a woman from Fort Worth, Texas who drove to Oklahoma City on Wednesday for her abortion.
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