“They told me if I get an abortion, I will get breast cancer or bleed to death, or become infertile and never be able to have a child!” says Maleeha Aziz describing her visit to a pregnancy centre in Dallas, Texas.
The Pakistani American needed an abortion and her cousin quickly helped her locate clinic with a low priced ultrasound, via an internet search.
Young and nervous, Maleeha was horrified – the clinic showed her a 30-minute ‘propaganda’ video, then tried to scare and dissuade her by narrating ‘inaccurate risks’ of getting her pregnancy terminated, and even misguided her about its legality.
“There were two women in white lab coats who I thought were physicians. They told me that Texas has banned medical abortions because they are dangerous. I played along till I could get the ultrasound, which they performed only after assurances that I will not go ahead with the abortion. I never returned. They tried to track me down by phone for many months,” shares Maleeha, who then travelled to a Colorado for her abortion.
This was before the ban that Texas enforced from September 2021. Later she discovered that, “The women in white lab coats were not doctors. It was a hoax clinic. And I didn’t have to travel out of state to get the abortion pills, as it was legal in Texas then!”