--- title: An Alabama Abortion Clinic Prepares for Roe to Be Overturned description: We've been planning for this moment, and we will do all we can to keep abortion accessible until we legally cannot. We also won’t close our doors once that happens. canonical: https://time.com/6172950/roe-alabama-abortion-clinic-prepares/ author: Leah Torres article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-05-03T14:42:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:49:45.146Z article:section: Ideas og:title: If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, Our Clinic Won't Shut Down og:description: But we will have to stop providing abortions immediately og:url: https://time.com/6172950/roe-alabama-abortion-clinic-prepares/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte802332341323df6/698a318201168273ea981d81/West-Alabama-Womens-Center-abortions-roe-v-wade.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: An examination room at the West Alabama Women's Center, an independent clinic that performed the most abortion procedures in the state last year, in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Nov. 16, 2019. (Audra Melton/The New York Times) og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, Our Clinic Won't Shut Down twitter:description: But we will have to stop providing abortions immediately twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte802332341323df6/698a318201168273ea981d81/West-Alabama-Womens-Center-abortions-roe-v-wade.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, Our Clinic Will Stop Providing Abortions Immediately. But We Won't Shut Down > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Protests Begin Following Report That U.S. Supreme Court Could Overturn Roe v. Wade [Watch (HLS stream): Protests Begin Following Report That U.S. Supreme Court Could Overturn Roe v. Wade](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/MhBKvaNJ.m3u8) (0:42)  _Published 2022-05-03. A draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a Politico report released Monday._ by [Leah Torres](https://time.com/author/leah-torres/) and [Robin Marty](https://time.com/author/robin-marty/) May 3, 2022 2:42 PM UTC  An examination room at the West Alabama Women's Center, an independent clinic in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Nov. 16, 2019. An examination room at the West Alabama Women's Center, an independent clinic in Tuscaloosa, Ala., on Nov. 16, 2019.Audra Melton—The New York Times/Redux by [Leah Torres](https://time.com/author/leah-torres/) and [Robin Marty](https://time.com/author/robin-marty/) May 3, 2022 2:42 PM UTC Today, like most weekday mornings, there will be about a dozen women at various points in early pregnancy patiently waiting for their appointments at [_West Alabama Women’s Center_](https://time.com/6101739/abortion-access-alabama/), where we work. Some of them will be there for an aspiration abortion. Others will be waiting to see a nurse for bloodwork and counseling and to receive large glossy booklets of fetal images that the state requires they have in their possession for at least 48 hours before terminating a pregnancy. The afternoon will be even busier, with as many as 15 patients at a time coming to obtain the first pill of their medication abortions, as even more “first days” arrive for their time with the nurses, the “informed consent” materials, and the start of their 48-hour countdown, too. Our waiting rooms have swollen with patients over the last few months as clinics closer to Texas overflow with displaced Texans seeking care. They’ve push Louisiana patients to [Mississippi](https://time.com/6116072/mississippi-abortion-supreme-court-jackson-womens-health/), Mississippi patients to us, as eventually we’ve become one of the only clinics able to book appointments within a week of their initial call. Just [Texas banning abortion after six weeks](https://time.com/6093905/texas-abortion-ban-abortion-rights/) has crippled the remaining clinics in the South. Now, if a leak of an [early draft of a Supreme Court decision](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473) is to be believed, the majority of the Justices are prepared to overturned [_Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6128139/roe-wade-daughter-abortion/) as well as [_Planned Parenthood vs. Casey_](https://time.com/5592673/abortion-supreme-court-roe-casey/), which affirmed it, and almost all of the rest of the South will be closing as well. **Read More:** [_The Battle Over the Future of the Anti-Abortion Movement if the Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade_](https://time.com/6160143/anti-abortion-roe-wade-supreme-court/) [Reversing _Roe v. Wade_ ](https://time.com/6172956/consequences-overruling-roe-wade/)doesn’t just mean the process of returning the legality of abortion back to the states. For Alabama, where West Alabama Women’s Center is one of three remaining abortion clinics, legal abortion will end the moment that the U.S. Supreme Court says the very words “_Roe_ is overturned.” While 13 states have a variety of “trigger bans” that will make abortion illegal within weeks or even days of the Court’s ruling, Alabama has an abortion ban that predates _Roe_ – one that makes abortion a jailable offense for both provider and patient. Once the Court makes its decision official, any procedure or pill provided afterward is instantly a crime. From every day here on out, we know that our practice must revolve around the reality that if decisions are on the Supreme Court’s calendar, we must be prepared for our work to shift from completely legal to something that can get everyone arrested in a matter of seconds. It could be as abrupt as the moment between one patient swallowing a pill and the next patient receiving her water cup. A patient in the waiting room may end up with a legal abortion just by virtue of her number in line, while the rest may unfortunately be sent home. Or in the most horrifying of possibilities, a person could learn that the right to a legal abortion has disappeared while she literally lies on the exam table waiting for her procedure to begin. For a person who is pregnant and does not want to be, every second can feel endless. And now we know that in one second the entire landscape may shift, and her right to a legal abortion could be ripped from her hands. She may have followed every rule and restriction forced on her by the Alabama legislature: her mandatory 48-hour wait, her ultrasound, her multiple visits. She may have scraped together her payment, found childcare, requested time off from work, and even traveled across state lines. All this effort would be wasted if she happened to schedule her abortion on the morning the Supreme Court announces that a zygote now has more rights than any pregnancy-capable person in the state of Alabama. **Read More:** [_‘Keep Listening to My Voice.’ What It’s Like to Be an Abortion Clinic Escort_](https://time.com/6163613/abortion-clinic-escorts/) Our clinic has been planning for this moment since December, and we will do all we can to keep abortion accessible until we legally cannot. We also won’t close our doors once that happens. When abortion is illegal, patients will manage their own care and will need a safe place to go for follow-ups without fear of being turned into the police. There will be people miscarrying who will be unable to get medical help because doctors will be too scared of being accused of performing illegal abortions. We will fill the gaps that already exist in a state without Medicaid expansion, with the third highest maternal mortality, and that ranks 47th in child well-being – gaps that will only get worse as more people are forced into births they don’t want. Bodily autonomy is a human right that supersedes any Supreme Court decision, and we know that ending legal abortion will not end abortion itself. While it may take only one moment for abortion to become a crime, we vow to work as long as necessary because we believe that one day it will be legal again. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6172950/roe-alabama-abortion-clinic-prepares/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6172950/roe-alabama-abortion-clinic-prepares/"},"headline":"If Roe v. Wade Is Overturned, Our Clinic Will Stop Providing Abortions Immediately. 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