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29. Therefore, the Ordinance leaves Plaintiffs no choice but to cease all abortion
services in Lubbock. That will undermine Plaintiffs’ mission of providing affordable,
comprehensive reproductive health care (especially to patients from underserved communities).
30. More fundamentally and more troubling, Plaintiffs’ inability to perform abortions
in Lubbock will prevent and unduly burden their patients’ exercise of the constitutional right to
abortion. Without access to abortion at the Lubbock center, anyone in the Lubbock area who
wants an abortion will be able to obtain one only by traveling extraordinary distances—a
daunting and, for many, prohibitive obstacle, especially for people with lower incomes.
31. People who want an abortion generally seek one as soon as possible, but many
face logistical challenges that can delay access to care. For example, a pregnant person needs to
deliberate and decide whether to seek an abortion, schedule appointments, gather the financial
resources to pay for the abortion and related costs, arrange transportation to and from a health
center, take time off work (often unpaid), and possibly obtain substitute care for a child or other
family member during the abortion and recovery. There is a narrow window of time to
accomplish these tasks; people usually do not learn they are pregnant until at least four weeks
after their last menstrual period, and often much later, and Texas law prohibits nearly all
abortions beginning at twenty-two weeks of gestation.
32. Having to travel hundreds of miles to an abortion provider and hundreds of miles
back, likely with an overnight stay, exacerbates these challenges. Anyone seeking an abortion
will likely need to gather more money to cover higher travel costs (not just for gas but potentially
also for overnight lodging and more meals), might lose more income from taking more time off
work, and will have a harder time obtaining substitute family care. For some, these heightened
challenges will be impossible to overcome; for others, they will appreciably delay their access to
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