HARLINGEN — For the first time in more than 30 years, Dr. Lester Minto turned away patients on Saturday.
Most women seeking to terminate their pregnancies at Reproductive Services of Harlingen were informed late Friday that new abortion rules requiring hospital admitting privileges, something Minto's clinic lacks, would preclude him from performing the procedures.
One woman from Mexico, who was unaware of the Texas law, came to Minto after a failed attempt to self-induce using misoprostol, a drug that will cause a medical abortion if taken properly. He gave her a sonogram and offered counseling, ultimately sending her away.
“If it weren't for those (protesters) out there, I'd help her in a heartbeat,” Minto, 65, said, referring to anti-abortion activists gathered outside his building.
Anti-abortion activists celebrated passage of Texas' controversial law, and again this week when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans reversed a ruling by a federal judge that blocked a portion of it. The reversal effectively shuts down a third of the abortion clinics in the state, including the only two providers in the Rio Grande Valley.
Whole Woman's Health, which owns several abortion clinics across Texas, closed its McAllen clinic on Friday.
For many women along this stretch of Texas-Mexico border, the three- to five-hour car ride to the nearest abortion provider is cost-prohibitive. Physicians including Minto warn that it will likely lead to increased use of other, unsafe methods of termination, like misoprostol. The pill can easily be purchased at flea markets or pharmacies in Mexico for as little as $35 per box of 28 pills. An abortion at Minto's clinic costs about $400.
The appeals court ruling is not final, and a different panel of judges will hear the case in January.
A change may not come in time to keep some clinics afloat. Even with empty operating rooms and surgical instruments stacked in stainless steel tubs, Minto declared his resolve to go on helping women, though it wasn't immediately clear how he expected to remain open without clients.
“I can help,” he said, “it's all in the words I use.”
Reproductive Services of Harlingen opened in the aftermath of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Minto came on board in the early '80s, at a time when demand was growing and no one in town would rent to an abortion clinic, he said.
He and his then-partner leveraged their unpopularity to allow residents, displeased to have an abortion clinic for a neighbor, buy them out and used the money to build the current facility.
For 30 years, Minto's detractors have been with him every step of the way. They gather outside, toting pro-life slogans, swaddling baby dolls, praying, singing hymns, but mostly they try to steer women away from the clnic and into continuing their pregnancies.
Patty Edwards, 59, has a fervent dedication to the cause, showing up every weekend for the past 22 years. During a “closing rally” on Saturday, she joined a group of nearly 30 to celebrate what they hope will be the end of Harlingen's abortion clinic.
“We won the battle,” she announced. “It's such a miracle.”
Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, one of the few Democrats to vote for the abortion legislation last August, was also outside Minto's clinic to support the pro-life message.
“I depend on my faith for my decisions as a lawmaker,” he said, “and I believe life begins at conception.”
While Saturday's demonstration was peaceful, Minto and his family have been the target of threats. To protect himself, he wears a bulletproof vest and carries a gun. For the protection of his patients and staff, he keeps an off-duty police officer on the payroll.
Standing in a surgical room, Minto estimated he performs more than 1,500 procedures each year. A few former patients called recently, he said, but no one turned out in support of the beleaguered doctor Saturday.
Facing an uncertain future, Minto prepared to close, perhaps for good, offering a final bit of advice to women before leaving.
“Don't do anything stupid,” he said, “and don't lose hope.”
anelsen@express-news.net
@amnelsen
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