Getting access to abortion care in the Lone Star State has become nearly impossible thanks to the actions of the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature.
However, nowhere have the consequences been more dire or challenging than in the Rio Grande Valley, according to reproductive rights advocates.
Even as preventable deaths due to Texas’s strict abortion ban continue to pile up, traveling out of state for abortion care is nearly impossible for many South Texas women, said Zaena Zamora, executive director of the reproductive-justice group the Frontera Fund.
“People in my community are having to travel more than 12 hours to drive out of state,” Zamora said during a panel discussion at last month’s SXSW festival. “If they’re taking a bus, that’s a 24-hour bus ride. If they’re taking a flight, it’s a two- or three-hour flight to get their care. Living in border communities can be very difficult because of geographically where we’re located.”
That geographic isolation is only part of the challenge. Zamora, whose organization is based in McAllen, said heightened immigration enforcement has created an additional layer of fear and risk for those seeking care.
For residents of the Rio Grande Valley, traveling north requires passing through interior immigration checkpoints located roughly 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The checkpoints, established in 1953 as part of a federal enforcement zone, allow agents to question travelers about their citizenship status and conduct warrantless searches.
No room to move
While checkpoints were historically intended to intercept drug trafficking and human smuggling, advocates said their role has expanded since Trump’s immigration crackdown, which creates a climate of fear among Valley residents.
“If a person is undocumented or they’re traveling with somebody who has mixed status, they have to travel through that checkpoint,” Zamora said. “Now, at our local airport, there’s also a Border Patrol presence who will ask us about our citizenship status, even when entering the TSA line. It’s a lot of barriers like this that really target immigrant communities.”
As a result, South Texas women are looking south to Mexico, where abortion medication such as misoprostol is available over the counter.
“Mexico has always been a way for us to access healthcare, and abortion care is no different,” Zamora said. “Even before [the Texas ban], a lot of people would access healthcare in Mexico and go there to get abortion medication like misoprostol.”
But that option’s not open to everyone either. Undocumented individuals can’t safely cross the border, and even many legal residents fear increased scrutiny or detention as during the Trump White House’s draconian crackdown.
Indeed, a ProPublica report published last October identified more than 170 U.S. citizens who had been detained by ICE — some for days — before being released from custody.
‘Climate of fear’
The consequences of Texas’ abortion ban and the federal immigration crackdown have been dire for women in the Valley, Zamora said.
In 2021, 28-year-old Honduran immigrant Josseli Barnica died after experiencing complications during a miscarriage. Doctors delayed her care because the fetus still had cardiac activity even though the pregnancy had become nonviable, according to news reports. She later died of an infection.
In another case, Lizelle Gonzalez of Starr County was arrested in 2022 after seeking care for a miscarriage after taking misoprostol. A nurse reported her to the authorities, alleging a self-induced abortion.
Although Texas law doesn’t allow for criminal charges against a pregnant person for ending their own pregnancy, authorities in Starr County arrested Gonzalez and charged her with murder.
The charges were dropped days later, and Gonzales subsequently filed a federal lawsuit against those responsible for her arrest. Even so, a federal judge last week dismissed Starr County officials from Gonzalez’s legal claim.
Zamora said these cases contribute to a broader climate of fear that discourages people from seeking care.
“This is just kind of a picture that we see with people trying to travel out of state and trying to access abortion care, whether at home, out of state and within our border communities,” she said.
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