NUEVO PROGRESO, Mexico 鈥� Maria laid the pregnancy test facedown on the counter in her boyfriend鈥檚 bathroom in McAllen and set a timer for the longest three minutes of her life.
She watched the timer tick down, mentally running through her litany of reassurances: They鈥檇 used a condom; she鈥檇 taken the Plan B pill; maybe her missed period was just an anomaly.
鈥淚 was just praying, please don鈥檛 let this be the case,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 had no idea how I鈥檇 navigate the situation. But what can I do but flip this test over?鈥�
It was positive.
Maria, who was a 17-year-old high school junior at the time, spoke with The Texas Tribune on the condition of anonymity and is identified in this story with a pseudonym because she fears repercussions from her family for sharing her experience.
Maria came from generations of teenage mothers, and while her Catholic parents didn鈥檛 talk with her much about sex, they were clear they had different expectations for her. They wanted her to leave the area for college to pursue her dreams of studying law.
She couldn鈥檛 have the baby, she decided.
It was October 2020, a year before Texas would implement , and 18 months before a revealed that the U.S. Supreme Court plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that established constitutional protections for abortion.
But even before all that, Maria had few options to access legal abortion care. There is only one clinic in the Rio Grande Valley, and she would need to get parental consent or a judicial bypass granted by a court. Even finding the money to pay for a legal abortion seemed impossible.
But living along the border presented another option.
Cheap regulated and unregulated medication is available over the counter at Mexican pharmacies, just a short walk away on the other side of the border. Rio Grande Valley residents and people from all corners of the state often cross into Mexico to get dental work or stock up on anything from daily vitamins and epinephrine to Valium and Xanax.
And then there鈥檚 misoprostol, a medication taken orally to prevent stomach ulcers 鈥� or terminate pregnancies.
Texas like misoprostol more strictly than federal regulations require; they can be prescribed and dispensed only in-person by a doctor through the first seven weeks of pregnancy.
Just over the border, though, it鈥檚 a different story.
With the constitutional protection for abortion on the line in the U.S., reproductive rights advocates expect to see more Texans traveling to Mexico to get abortion-inducing drugs they can鈥檛 obtain legally at home.
But despite the ease of access, abortion is still highly stigmatized in heavily Catholic communities on both sides of the border, representing a risk for patients who may need to seek medical care after a self-managed abortion.
Maria first learned about self-managed abortions online. She knew she could get the pills from a pharmacy over the border much more easily than she could access a legal abortion in Texas.
鈥淚 was definitely concerned about the legality of it,鈥� Maria said. 鈥淏ut I also knew, chances are, it will be fine and I had to do it.鈥�
Across the border
Jesus, Pope John Paul II and the Virgin of Guadalupe look down on customers buying abortion-inducing medication at Uncle Sam Pharmacy in Nuevo Progreso, a Mexican border town along the banks of the Rio Grande about 25 miles away from McAllen.
The portraits hang over the shelves of medication inside the pharmacy, just one reminder of how intertwined religion and everyday life is in the region. But Victor Olvera, the pharmacy鈥檚 manager, knows that no matter the religious views of many in the border area, there will always be customers looking to terminate their pregnancies.
Olvera expects that changes to abortion access in the U.S. will mean more business at Uncle Sam Pharmacy.
鈥淭he law is going to change and there will be more people coming,鈥� Olvera said.
He doesn鈥檛 plan to stock up on more misoprostol just yet 鈥� he said he will wait and see. The medication is cheap to buy: Some pharmacies in Nuevo Progreso sell generic misoprostol for as low as $20, while name brands such as Pfizer tend to go for more than $140. Pharmacists at seven different locations said this week they have not received complaints over the years about complications from the medication.
Misoprostol is at terminating early pregnancies by itself. In the United States, it鈥檚 approved by the Food and Drug Administration to be used alongside mifepristone to terminate pregnancies up to 10 weeks along.
While U.S. regulators have approved only the two-drug regimen, the and the both endorse the use of misoprostol alone if a patient can鈥檛 access mifepristone. misoprostol to be generally safe and effective for terminating early pregnancies.
But that doesn鈥檛 mean all pharmacies in Mexico like to stock the drug on their shelves.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to sell this,鈥� said Miguel Hernandez, a pharmacist at Pharmacy Rivera who noted that several customers come to his shop looking for the pills each week. 鈥淏ut if a customer asks if we have the medication, we have to sell it.鈥�
Even before Texas banned abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy last year, people have turned to Mexican pharmacies for years to quietly and discreetly terminate their pregnancies.
Maria and her boyfriend convinced a family member to buy the medication for them at a pharmacy over the border. A few days later, she had it in hand.
Following instructions she found online, she took the medication alone in her bathroom. She experienced terrible cramping, she said, and what felt like a very heavy period for several days. The online guide told her what to do if she had to seek medical care, but she ultimately was able to manage the side effects at home.
鈥淚 immediately felt such a sense of relief,鈥� she said. 鈥淏eing a mother, that wasn鈥檛 something I was ready for and it wasn鈥檛 something I was willing to do. It was just not an option for me.鈥�
Religion in the region
On Wednesday morning, Valerio Garc铆a, a 69-year-old car mechanic, stood in front of Whole Woman鈥檚 Health, McAllen鈥檚 only abortion clinic. He wore black slacks, a beige button-down shirt with a rosary hanging from his neck and a cowboy hat with a Virgin of Guadalupe pin on it.
The clinic, a one-story building with security cameras near the entrance in the city鈥檚 downtown, is also the only abortion provider in the U.S. along the 1,200-mile long Texas-Mexico border.
For the past seven years, Garc铆a said he has joined a group of religious men who show up every Saturday morning near the entrance of the clinic to pray for the women looking to get an abortion. He said the men pray that God can intervene and change the women鈥檚 minds about their plans to abort.
鈥淚 think there are people who go through this process because it鈥檚 been normalized and they lack information,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut they don鈥檛 realize there are repercussions both physically and mentally.鈥�
If the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn the constitutional protection for abortion rights, he said he would welcome it.
Garc铆a, who is Catholic, said he opposes the procedure because his first grandson was at risk of being aborted. If his daughter had heeded the doctor鈥檚 option to abort, Garc铆a would have missed out on the love of his grandchild, he said.
He said his daughter was three months pregnant with her first child when a doctor told her the baby鈥檚 organs were not developing properly. The doctor presented abortion as an option. Garc铆a said she turned to him for advice. He prayed for her and she decided to go through with the pregnancy.
The boy is now 13 years old and healthy, he said.
鈥淔or me, this story tells me that babies have life in the mother鈥檚 womb,鈥� he said, holding his phone up to show a picture of his grandson sitting in front of a piano.
The population in Hidalgo County, where McAllen is located, is mostly Hispanic, and many of its residents identify as Catholic. The Catholic Church has opposed abortion because its doctrine teaches that life starts at the moment of conception.
But south of the border and across Latin America 鈥� a region known historically for its Catholic faith and social conservatism 鈥� feminist movements have spurred monumental changes for reproductive rights. In recent years, three of the region鈥檚 four most populous countries have shifted on the issue: Argentina legalized abortion in 2020, Mexico decriminalized abortion in 2021 and Colombia decriminalized it in February.
Nancy C谩rdenas Pe帽a, the Texas director for policy and advocacy at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said that regardless of religious influence, reproductive rights advocates have made great strides in helping Valley residents understand that the right to an abortion is a women鈥檚 health issue and not a religious and moral issue.
She pointed to Edinburg, a city just north of McAllen where last July advocates stopped the city from adopting an ordinance that would have made it illegal to perform or help someone get an abortion.
鈥淚 think at the end of the day, the simple values-based messaging stance is that everyone loves someone who鈥檚 had an abortion,鈥� C谩rdenas Pe帽a said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 very true and very simple.鈥�
Reproductive rights advocates in the Rio Grande Valley also have different religious values, she said, but they ultimately believe in bodily autonomy.
Barriers to access
The Rio Grande Valley has long struggled with unique challenges to accessing reproductive health care. While some Texans may consider traveling out of state to access legal abortions, that鈥檚 not an option for the region鈥檚 many undocumented immigrants, C谩rdenas Pe帽a said.
There are immigration checkpoints driving out of the Valley to go elsewhere in the state, and it鈥檚 common for immigration officers to be at the airport asking for people鈥檚 documentation. While some Valley residents can travel to Mexico for misoprostol, undocumented people won鈥檛 be able to return legally to the U.S. if they were to go south for the pill.
鈥淒o people attend their abortion appointments? Or do they risk being placed in deportation proceedings?鈥� C谩rdenas Pe帽a said.
Noemi Pratt, a board member with South Texans for Reproductive Justice, said the recent case of a after what authorities described as a self-induced abortion in the neighboring Starr County had a chilling effect on the Valley.
Her charge was dropped, but with new limits on abortion seemingly on the horizon, 鈥減eople can get the wrong idea about what they can and can鈥檛 do,鈥� Pratt said.
鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten a lot of calls from people asking if they should be going to their abortion appointments,鈥� Pratt said.
Maria, the South Texas woman who terminated her pregnancy a year and a half ago, says she has no regrets. After her abortion, she was accepted to college out of state and though she and her boyfriend broke up, it was on good terms.
She鈥檚 never told her parents or any of her friends that she鈥檚 had an abortion. She doesn鈥檛 think she ever will.
Now, with the Supreme Court鈥檚 draft opinion making it clear that abortion access is likely to be eviscerated in Texas and large swaths of the nation, Maria finds herself thinking more and more about how lucky she was to live near the border.
鈥淭here鈥檚 so many people in the same state that live five hours away from Mexico 鈥� and it鈥檚 going to be a lot harder鈥� to access abortion care, she said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e probably going to face more detrimental consequences.鈥�
