Finding Safe Abortion Providers and the Landscape of Medical Training

Step 1 is finding a clinic or provider that is pre-screened, safe, legit, and right for you. Rest assured the vast majority of clinics are safe and clean, and will provide high-quality medical care. WRRAP works with over 700 health clinics and providers as part of our network for patient funding. Every clinic is different, and things like cost, anesthesia, and available services will be different at different clinics. Some may only provide abortions up to 11 or 12 weeks into pregnancy, while others can provide abortions up to 18, 24, or 26 weeks into pregnancy.

How to Find a Clinic or Abortion Provider

You can find a clinic or abortion provider by going to any of these websites or using the contact information provided below:

Be advised that you may need to travel out of state to an abortion clinic, especially if you are looking for an abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy. It’s a good idea to call different clinics and get an idea of what your options are.

Tips on How to Choose a Good Provider

When selecting a facility, use the following guidelines to ensure your safety and health:

• Don’t trust ads in the phone book or on the internet. Big or expensive ads don’t necessarily mean that the clinic is a good one – or even that it’s a real clinic at all.
• Get a referral from someone you trust, if possible. You can also call a local hospital or doctor’s office and ask them to give a referral to a clinic they trust.
• Call the clinic on the phone. Ask if they provide abortions. If they say no or avoid the question, it might not really be an abortion clinic.
• Ask about their fees. Ask what charges are included in the fee. Are all medications included? Is all lab work included? Is a follow-up included?

Trust your instincts. Your safety and health are the most important things to consider. If there’s anything about a clinic that makes you feel uncomfortable, ask them about it.

Identifying Crisis Pregnancy Centers

There are some places out there that call themselves “clinics” but don’t actually perform abortions. These “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” are often listed in phone books under Abortion or Abortion Alternatives. These places are anti-abortion and they will try to convince you not to have an abortion, often by giving you false, medically inaccurate information about the risks or costs of abortion.

The Reality of Abortion Medical Training

Every year, more than 100 new obstetrician-gynecologists graduate from a Texas residency program and enter the medical workforce. Theoretically, all have had the opportunity during their four years of residency to learn about what's called "induced abortion" — named that to distinguish it from a miscarriage. However, the closure of abortion clinics has made that training increasingly difficult.

Medical residents can opt out of abortion training for religious or moral reasons, but many feel a professional obligation to learn the procedure. "This is part of OB-GYN — it's not an optional part, per se," one resident noted. Learning to perform abortions involves a specific set of skills, including counseling patients about abortion, contraception, and sexually transmitted diseases, as well as techniques for pain management and dilation of the cervix.

Challenges Facing Medical Institutions

Doctors working in these institutions are walking a very delicate line. Some of them want very much to be able to train residents, but they are fearful of the other sectors of the university coming down on them regarding funding. Academic medical centers receive tens of millions of dollars a year in state funding, and many of those centers sponsor the residencies that allow doctors to focus on a specialty. Furthermore, doctors who provide the service must think about security issues for themselves and their staff, alongside the scrutiny of state inspectors.