Oklahoma abortion providers see huge influx of Texas women

Abortion providers in Oklahoma say they're continuing to see a dramatic increase in women coming from Texas who want to terminate their pregnancies

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Two abortion providers in Oklahoma said Tuesday that they’re still seeing a massive influx of women from Texas who want to terminate their pregnancies after Texas last year passed the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the U.S. in decades.

Officials with Trust Women and Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which both operate abortion clinics in Oklahoma City, said some women from Oklahoma are being forced to seek abortion services in other states because of two-week wait times for services in Oklahoma.

“Our phones have not stopped ringing in the last six months," said Rebecca Tong, co-executive director of Trust Women. “We're being forced to turn people away in desperate situations."

Tong said the clinic has added an additional physician and the clinic is open more days per week but it still has longer wait times, which leads to longer pregnancies, more complications and an increased likelihood that a woman will have to receive a surgical procedure instead of a medication-induced abortion.