look what we created. this is now sarah palin s party. its not john mccain s party. this say different party. david jolly and monya sharon, thank you for joining me tonight. that is all in on this wednesday night. good evening, rachael. good evening, chris. thank you, my friend. much appreciated. thanks for joining us this hour. 1973. s. when the united states supreme court guaranteed abortion rights nationwide. that, of course, is the landmark roe versus wade decision. that law blocked states, any state in the country from banning abortion. it said american women have a right under the united states constitution to get an abortion if they want one. and that right can t be infringed even if politicians in individual states feel differently. after that ruling in 1973, the very first abortion clinic to open its doors in the great state of texas was a clinic in the city of mcallen.
and, of course, people who work for organizations like this who help whoim are seeking this service, they re in the absolute bulls eye in terms who have this new law targets. the essentially offers $10,000 bounty to anybody in the country who wants to try to sue somebody who helps a woman access abortion services in the state of texas if they end up getting an abortion past six weeks of jestation. in other words, the hurdles that organizations like this have to overcome just got 1,000 tombs higher overneutral while they were 1,000 tombs more needed than ever. joining us now is anna raponi, co-executive director of fund texas choice. the i appreciate you being here. this is a difficult time. hello. what do you think will happen with this new law going into effect today? what will that effect in terms of your organization s work? we are here. we re not leaving. the message is clear. we re going to continue fighting
mcallen is a small city on the very southern tip of texas, right on the border of mexico. the first abortion clinic in texas opened there in 1973 and it served women in the rio grande valley in that part of south texas for decades. even as anti-abortion republicans started to cement their control over the government in texas and year after year they devised ever more creative and draconian ways to make abortion as hard and as dangerous to get as possible in texas, that clinic in mcallen kept going. and republicans really did keep passing more and more restrictive laws making it more impossible for clinics to stay open and making it more impossible for doctors to provide that service. in recent years texas republicans passed new abortion restrictions regularly, at least every two years with each new session of the republican dominated state legislature. and as a result of those
well, wherever you were today and whatever you were doing today and whatever it was like for you today, that s your answer. i d like to take a moment to share with you all what the final hours of legal abortion care looks like in texas last night. whole woman s health has staff and physicians providing abortions in texas until 11:56 is the time we finished our last abortion in ft. worth last night. our waiting rooms were filled with patients and their loved ones and all four of our clinics yesterday. we had a physician who had worked with us for decades in tears as he tried to complete the abortions for all the folks who were waiting in our ft. worth waiting room. marva sadler who was our plaintiff in this case was on suit also in ft. worth working with our physician to see every single patient. she called me at 10:00 p.m., 27
and so it s just, you know, it s obvious we re going have a public health problem on our hands, right? the law did not do anything to prevent the need for abortion. we didn t change the amount of wum in the community who are still going to need the service. we just blocked their access to getting it safely. that was the situation this is seven years ago this is march 2014. at that clinic in mcallen, texas, that stood for 40 years. the founder of whole women s health, what she was telling us when we talked with her is that clinic she ran, the one that had been operating for decades, the very first abortion clinic to open in texas after roe versus wade, it was shutting down. because of those restrictions passed in 2013 by the texas republican dominated legislature. she was finally being forced to close the doors of that clinic. when we spoke to amy miller of whole women s health in march of 2014, as she said, as of 2011, there had been 44 facilities in