This testimony is among the “friend of the court” briefs—submitted by a collection of nearly 200 organizations and more than 700 individuals—that represent a united front against medically unnecessary abortion restrictions that undermine the U. S. constitutional right to access abortion.

H. Amy Irvin

Amy is intimately familiar with the way abortion access has changed over the last 20 years. When she had her first abortion in 1992, as a 21-year-old University of Cincinnati student, Ohio had few restrictions. When she had a second abortion 20 years later in Louisiana, she was shocked by the intrusive and burdensome requirements now placed on women seeking abortion, and appalled by the overcrowding it caused at the clinic where she was a patient.

Although Amy used a birth control pill in high school, she did not have the money to pay for it when she went to college. Amy held a part-time job and used most of her income to pay rent and buy art supplies for class. Like many college students without financial support from her family, Amy lived hand-to-mouth; she once went to a soup kitchen to feed herself. When Amy learned she was pregnant during an internship in Atlanta, Georgia, she knew immediately she needed an abortion. Raised by a single mother who worked multiple jobs to provide for the family, Amy wanted to finish college, have a career, and not repeat a childhood where her family worried about buying groceries or paying bills. Amy had no one in Atlanta to confide in and felt strongly she should inform the father she was pregnant and wanted an abortion. So she returned to Ohio.

The journey was traumatizing. Amy ran out of money and gas somewhere in Kentucky, and had to ask a gas station attendant for money for gas to get to Cincinnati. She promised to pay for it on her return trip.

Amy did not inform her family or her college room- mates she was pregnant. She had graduated third in her high school class, and was the first person in her family to go to college. She felt ashamed of how desperate her situation had become, and believed an un- planned pregnancy was inconsistent with expectations of her.

After informing the father, who already had a child and did not want another, Amy went back to Atlanta to resume her internship. Then she returned to Cincinnati for the abortion, because it was critical to her that she be at home in familiar surroundings and near her support network.

Amy paid for the abortion herself. She does not remember how she scraped the money together. Her mother would not have had it to give, and she would never have asked her father.

In 2012, Amy unexpectedly became pregnant for a second time. This time, she had finished her education, had a career, had been married and divorced, and was not struggling financially. But she decided that be- cause the father struggled with substance abuse, she was not prepared to be involved with him for the rest of her life. And having seen how difficult it was for her mother to be a single mother, she was not prepared to do that. The father, a regular churchgoer, was conflicted and ashamed, but supported her decision.

Amy’s second abortion in New Orleans was different from her first. She lived across town from the clinic and had the support of nearby friends. She was able to have a medical abortion. But she was required to make two in-person appointments to satisfy a mandatory waiting period, and undergo a mandatory scripted ultrasound that Amy found so intrusive that she has tried to block it from memory. And the abortion clinic was so overcrowded, due to patients from Baton Rouge being redirected to New Orleans after their local clinic temporarily stopped seeing patients, that she had to wait all day to be seen. Hearing the women in the wait- ing room describe their long trips to get there, and concerns about how they were going to return home, brought back memories of Amy’s first abortion. Amy’s experience led her to work in abortion advocacy to help low-income women in Louisiana access abortions.

Amy believes doctors are best positioned to bring lawsuits challenging unnecessary regulations that restrict abortion access. Litigation is costly, time-consuming, and public, and she has never been in a position to bring such a lawsuit herself. In her experience, abortion providers are committed to the well-being of the women they serve. Many are old enough to retire but do not because they consider their work to be so important.