First Lubbock banned abortions. Now the fight is over contraception.

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WOLFFORTH — When the Supreme Court ended the constitutional proper to abortions in June, Destiny Adams felt the nation was taking a step backward. So she determined to push her small West Texas city a step ahead.

To do her half, Adams started leaving free emergency contraception kits neatly packed in white plastic baggage in the lavatory of her coffeehouse, Tumbleweed + Sage.

The kits — which retail for as much as $60 — go fast, Adams stated. The first 50 have been gone inside every week.

“We don’t charge people or ask questions, we don’t take names, we don’t even know who grabs them,” Adams stated.

With the regular movement of caffeine and Plan B out there at Tumbleweed + Sage, Adams has drawn the ire of protesters from the space’s anti-abortion motion to her store. Some on this Lubbock suburb of about 5,100 have even reported her store to the Wolfforth Police Department for freely giving the emergency contraceptive capsules.

The conflict between the espresso store proprietor and abortion opponents is the newest salvo in an extended debate in the area.

Last May, Lubbock turned the greatest metropolis in Texas — and the just one with an abortion supplier — to ban the follow inside metropolis limits. Months later, Texas lawmakers handed a legislation banning abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant.

The Lubbock space was — and is — a harbinger in the debate over reproductive rights. And the new epicenter would possibly simply be Tumbleweed + Sage. With abortion outlawed in the Lone Star State, the fight largely is turning to contraception. The fault traces are acquainted: Abortion-rights activists are pushing a number of types of contraception, together with Plan B. Abortion opponents are lobbying for extra bans on the medication.

Lubbock led the manner in curbing abortions  

Getting entry to abortion has not often been simple in Lubbock, and the nationwide debate has performed out right here in outstanding methods.

Planned Parenthood reopened its clinic in late 2020, after closing in 2013 due to another Texas law blocking abortions after 20 weeks of being pregnant. The facility, which is nonetheless open and providing different companies, is tucked away close to a residential space at the finish of the metropolis’s medical district. At its peak, it noticed sufferers from rural areas all over West Texas, the Texas Panhandle and New Mexico.

“We saw people from all over, which really stresses how important the service was here and how needed it is,” stated Angela Martinez, supervisor of the Lubbock clinic. “Then the sanctuary city vote happened and we had to go back to offering referrals and sending people out.”

The heated debate for Lubbock to grow to be a “sanctuary city for the unborn” began as Planned Parenthood ready to reopen its clinic.

In September 2020, state lawmakers representing Lubbock pushed metropolis officers to create the measure.

Two months later, the City Council heard almost six hours of public feedback earlier than unanimously voting to reject the sanctuary metropolis ordinance. Most members of the council stated that whereas they opposed abortion, they’d considerations about the enforcement and constitutionality of the ordinance.

Then, greater than 4,500 Lubbock voters signed a petition to power a particular election on the difficulty. Churches in the space have been vocal supporters of the ordinance and inspired their congregations to vote in assist of it. “Vote for Life” indicators dotted the metropolis on the eve of the particular election.

Ultimately, the ordinance handed on May 1, 2021, by 62%, with only a quarter of registered voters — 34,260 — collaborating.

The Sunday after the vote, local pastors declared it a victory.

The ordinance empowered personal residents to deliver lawsuits in opposition to anybody who was “aiding and abetting” somebody getting an abortion. The ordinance went into impact two weeks earlier than state lawmakers handed an identical statewide legislation, often known as Senate Bill 8, which successfully banned abortions statewide after six weeks of being pregnant.

Planned Parenthood offered abortion companies to the Lubbock area for simply two months earlier than it needed to cease.

“I think people were stunned because they had no idea the hurdles they had to go through next,” Martinez stated.

Planned Parenthood challenged the ordinance in a lawsuit however dropped the case eight months later, saying “it is clear we cannot depend on the courts to protect our constitutional rights.”

Terisa Clark is a part of the management workforce at Project Destiny, the group that spearheaded the Lubbock ordinance. According to the group, a piece in the ordinance makes an exception if a pregnant particular person’s life is in danger, however Clark stated that apart from that, the group desires abortion to be unthinkable. While there have been lots of victories, it is nonetheless working to push for extra abortion bans.

“We will continue to do everything we can to make sure that abortion is illegal, as much as we can influence that and the people in each community and each day can influence that,” Clark stated.

Neither aspect is backing down

Lubbock’s Planned Parenthood is nonetheless open and supplies ladies’s well being companies, however not abortions. Among these companies is “empowerment kits,” which embody emergency contraception, being pregnant exams and condoms. Also included: a voter registration card and information on Senate Bill 8.

Women who go to Planned Parenthood are nonetheless often confronted by protesters, serving as a reminder that the clinic is not welcome by some in conservative Lubbock.

“If Planned Parenthood can figure it out and be supportive of women’s health and caring for women without abortion services, then that’s better,” Clark stated. “My suspicion is if they exist in a city, they’re probably only there to refer to the other states where they can perform abortions.”

Adams, the suburban espresso store proprietor, confronted these anti-abortion protesters when she visited the clinic for a being pregnant take a look at final 12 months.

“They were just there to hoot and holler, to make me feel ashamed in some way,” Adams recalled. “They still made me feel sick to my stomach. I just thought, “Why are these people like this in Lubbock of all places?”

Despite the string of victories stretching from the voter-approved ban, the Lubbock anti-abortion motion is not completed. In truth, the modifications in the state and by the U.S. Supreme Court over the final 12 months have solely invigorated folks, Clark stated.

“The fight for life is not over, and probably never will be over, to be honest,” she stated.

Martinez stated Planned Parenthood nonetheless has lots of people reaching out to it daily for numerous sources, so the clinic will keep in Lubbock to supply assist to the folks in the area who want it.

“There are needs that need to be met in Lubbock,” Martinez stated. “So us being here is really important to the community, and I know we’re needed. I don’t see us going anywhere anytime soon.”

A brand new fight after Supreme Court resolution  

Among the new fronts in the battle over replica rights is contraception, together with Plan B — an emergency contraceptive that may stop being pregnant however doesn’t trigger abortions. And abortion-rights activists have stepped up their effort to extend entry to such capsules that may stop being pregnant.

Adams joined the fight after a buddy requested her to work with Jane’s Due Process, a Texas-based nonprofit that helps teenagers entry abortions and reproductive well being care.

When Adams posted on TikTook for the first time that she could be distributing emergency contraception kits, the video garnered consideration in a single day.

By morning, protesters gathered exterior the store holding graphic images of aborted fetuses.

At one level, she prolonged a symbolic olive department, taking chilly water to them in the 100-degree climate. But she stated they have been impolite and he or she regretted it afterwards.

“It’s ironic because my baby gets to see them now, out of the womb, yelling at us as we walk into our coffee shop,” Adams stated.

The kits made by Jane’s Due Process and distributed at Adams’ espresso store embody two capsules, since the quantity taken is dependent upon the weight of the particular person taking it, two packs of condoms, a being pregnant take a look at and a booklet of information containing sources.

There are greater than $100 price of merchandise in the kits, and they’re potential via $17.7 million in funding for Texas from the federal Title X Family Planning Program.

What Adams is doing is authorized. Emergency contraception is bought over the counter in shops equivalent to Walgreens and CVS, and it doesn’t require a physician’s prescription or parental consent to folks over 17 years previous. Despite this, the Wolfforth Police Department has been known as a number of occasions about the kits.

“We have received many calls and emails questioning the legality of this practice,” the division stated in a press release. “Unfortunately, the legality of the practice is not a simple question to answer. We have been researching the matter and have reached out to many state and local officials for help in determining the lawfulness of the issue.”

Adams anticipated the response and has even instructed her supporters to not ship adverse feedback to the police as a result of “they’re just doing their job.” The intimidation hasn’t scared her.

And for all the assaults, there was group assist.

“We saw grandmas talking to their granddaughters about the kits, we saw college-aged women, women my age and young mothers,” Adams stated. “The people that have come and asked for them seemed like they truly needed them.”

Disclosure: Planned Parenthood has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that is funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no function in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a whole list of them here.

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