Listen to the Call:
Transcript:
REPRODUCTIVE SERVICES OF HARLINGEN
613 W. SESAME DR.
HARLINGEN, TX 78550
956-428-6253
TAPE – 795
(Dialing, phone ringing 1x)
CLINIC: Thanks for calling Adoption (unclear). This is Susan.
CALLER: Hi. Yeah. I was calling to see if you guys do abortions there.
CLINIC: For what city, ma’am?
CALLER: For Raymondville.
CLINIC: Would you be going to Austin, El Paso, Arlington or San Antonio?
CALLER: The one in Arlington.
CLINIC: Okay. I can give you the clinic number.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: It’s 956-428-6242.
CALLER: Okay. And who is this here?
CLINIC: This is the central office. We’re located in San Antonio.
CALLER: Oh, all right.
CLINIC: You need the 800 number for the clinic?
CALLER: No.
CLINIC: Okay.
CALLER: All right. Okay. Thank you.
CLINIC: Bye bye.
(Dialing, phone ringing 5x)
CLINIC: Reproductive Services. This is Laura.
CALLER: Hi. Yeah. I was calling to see if you guys do abortions there.
CLINIC: Um-hmm.
CALLER: How much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: It depends on how far along you are.
CALLER: Well, how do you know how far along you are?
CLINIC: Do you know when your last period was?
CALLER: January 3rd.
CLINIC: Okay. According to your last period you’re about nine weeks. So the price for everything — your medication, the procedure, and if you want the anesthesia, is $377.
CALLER: Okay. The thing is, I’m going to be 14 later on this month, and my friend said that you guys would have to tell my parents. But my boyfriend’s 22. Is he old enough to take care of it, and you wouldn’t have to tell anybody?
CLINIC: No. You’d have to — the only other way that you can do it is if you go to the court and get a judicial bypass.
CALLER: Okay. What is that?
CLINIC: Where are you from?
CALLER: I’m from Raymondville.
CLINIC: Are you Wallacy County?
CALLER: I’m not really sure. We just moved here.
CLINIC: Then you would need to go to — I wouldn’t even know what courthouse that is. Do you know where we at?
CALLER: Well, my boyfriend does.
CLINIC: Okay. What you can do is you can come here to our clinic and just pick up a packet. And you go ahead and ask them here. I don’t know which court you would need to go to, but that way you can already have the packet with you. Pick up the packet here, and then ask them what court you would need to call. You just set up an appointment or you can just show up with our papers already. And tell them that you need to set up an appointment with a judge to get a judicial bypass because you don’t want your parents to find out for whatever reason. And they’ll let you speak with a judge. And basically he’s going to ask you if you know your options. Tell him yes; that you can continue with it, have an abortion, or give it up for adoption; that you’re just not ready to have a child yet, so you prefer to have the procedure done here with us. And he’ll say whether he’ll let you — he’ll say yes or no. And if he tells you know, I’m not going to allow this, then you just set up another point to take you to another judge, and that judge usually always says yes.
CALLER: Oh, okay.
CLINIC: But most of the time the judge will tell you yes the first time as long as you do know what you’re talking about and that he sees that you’re adult enough to make the decision, and nobody has to know anything. And you don’t pay anything.
CALLER: So it doesn’t cost anything for all that?
CLINIC: Right.
CALLER: All right.
CLINIC: Like I said, just have your boyfriend bring you in here to get the packet and ask them here what courthouse you need to go to. And then just go ahead and go over there. But I think you have to be there before a certain time. I think it’s before 4 or something like that.
CALLER: Okay. Would you guys do a pregnancy test while I was there just to make sure?
CLINIC: Yeah. If you —
CALLER: Because I haven’t had one yet.
CLINIC: Uh-huh. Go ahead and let them know that since you’re here you want to go ahead and have a pregnancy test to make sure.
CALLER: Well, me and my boyfriend were talking about all this, and we don’t want anybody to know. But he said he was going to pay cash for everything. Would he have to sign his name on any forms or anything?
CLINIC: No, not at all. If you put him down — if you put him down here like as an emergency, nobody calls him or nobody anything. How can I say? Your chart doesn’t get into anybody’s hands. The only thing is, since he is already 22 and you’re only 14, by law we have to report him to the police.
CALLER: Why?
CLINIC: I’m going to go ahead and tell you that before you come in. So you don’t even have to mention anything as far as here. You know what I’m saying?
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: If you just go ahead and say that he’s 16 or whatever, because they will ask you. And we’ll take your word for it. We don’t go see who he is; you know what I’m saying?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: If you say he’s 16, then he’s 16 and that’s it. But by law we have to ask because that’s statutory rape, so we have to report it.
CALLER: But he’s not raping me. We’re in love. We’re going to get married.
CLINIC: Oh, no, I know. But by law, if he’s three years older than you and you’re a minor, that’s what it is and we have to report it. So just to let you know when you come in, because I don’t want you — if they ask you anything, just go ahead and say (unclear).
CALLER: So if I don’t tell you, it would be okay then?
CLINIC: Oh, yeah. A lot of them come in and they say, oh, no, he’s only this or he’s only that because of that.
CALLER: After the pregnancy test that I got, if it said that I wasn’t pregnant, could I get birth control from you guys?
CLINIC: You would need to come in first for a pap smear, set up an appointment for a pap smear, and then we can prescribe you the birth control.
CALLER: How much does it cost for the —
CLINIC: For the pap it’s $50.
CALLER: And you wouldn’t have to tell anybody if I was on birth control?
CLINIC: No, not at all. We don’t give any information to anyone at all, not even if your parents call or even if your boyfriend calls. We can’t give any information to anybody except for you.
CALLER: Oh, all right. Okay.
CLINIC: Okay? But don’t worry about anything. Just come in, pick up the packet, take the pregnancy test, and remember, he’s 16 and that’s it, 16.
CALLER: Okay. And you’re sure the judge will say yes?
CLINIC: Oh, yeah. Everybody who’s come in with it, he has said except only one time that he said no, because they supposedly have to say no every once in a while. And so she went back to another one, and he said yes. But it only takes a few minutes.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: Okay?
CALLER: All right. Thank you.
CLINIC: Bye bye.
CALLER: Bye.
***END***