“I saw tremendous, tremendous teamwork that night”
(Picture: Austin American-Statesman)A doctor from Texas has revealed the realities of the last day before the controversial law to ban almost all abortions in the state took action.
Signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May, the law prohibits terminations once medical professionals can detect cardiac activity, which is around the six-week mark where many women are unaware they are actually pregnant.
In addition, the law allows people to take legal action against doctors and anyone else who assist the abortion process. This can be anything from friends or family members who drive a woman to an appointment past the time the heartbeat can be detected. Successful lawsuits can pay out $10,000 to the citizen who reported the incident.
Before the law took effect at midnight on September 1, Jasbir Ahluwalia worked through the night to complete 67 abortions at the Whole Woman’s Health clinic in Fort Worth.
The 83-year-old OB-GYN candidly opened up to VICE and said: “Nobody cared for their own welfare. The workers - they want to take care of the patients. That was an amazing, amazing attitude I saw for the first time in all these 50 years of practice of medicine.”
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“We were joking, ‘There was plenty of food in the break room’ - nobody would go”, he added.
“They wanted to take care of every patient, bring them in, move and move and move. I saw tremendous, tremendous teamwork that night.”
“This was like, ‘We’re going to fight a war.’ This is a war against the politicians, and we’re going to fight and win. We’re not going to turn around anybody.
“And it went on by the book. We did not take any shortcuts. Everything was done properly. I was really amazed.”
Upon his return to work after the newly introduced abortion ban, he told the news outlet: “You couldn’t imagine the difference between night and day.
“And there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s a law, it’s in effect, we have to observe it.”
