Listen to the Call:
Transcript:
WEST SIDE CLINIC
2011 LAS VEGAS TRAIL
FORT WORTH, TX 76108
817-246-2446
TAPE – 787
(Dialing, phone ringing 1x)
CLINIC: Westside Clinic. May I help you?
CALLER: Hi. Yeah. I was calling to see if you guys do abortions there.
CLINIC: Yes.
CALLER: How much does it cost for that?
CLINIC: It depends how far along you are?
CALLER: How do you know? I’m not sure.
CLINIC: Do you know the first day of your last period?
CALLER: January 3rd.
CLINIC: January 3rd?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Okay. You would probably be about almost 10 weeks.
CALLER: Okay. So how much would it be then?
CLINIC: Hold on, okay?
(Pause)
CLINIC: Your period was when did you say?
CALLER: January 3rd.
CLINIC: January the 3rd. So that would be between 9 and 10 weeks. That would be $300. Up to 11 weeks will be $300. And it’s payable in cash or major credit card. And appointments are Tuesday through Saturday, and all appointments are in the morning. And all you have to do is call one day ahead of time to set up an appointment.
CALLER: The thing is — my main worry is I’m going to be 14 later on this month, and my friend told me 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, uh-uh. No. If you’re under age, you have to have a parent.
CALLER: Well, is there any way not to tell my parents?
CLINIC: Hold on, okay?
CALLER: Okay.
(Short pause)
CLINIC: Can I help you?
CALLER: Hi. Who is this?
CLINIC: This is Westside Clinic.
CALLER: Oh, okay. Well, I was talking to someone different.
CLINIC: Huh?
CALLER: I was wondering if I could get an abortion. 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, no. We would have to have a parent — do you live here in Fort Worth?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: And you’re 13?
CALLER: Uh-huh.
CLINIC: And you’re boyfriend’s 22.
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Okay. How far along are you? Do you know?
CALLER: The other lady said I was like 9 to 10 weeks.
CLINIC: Okay. What you’re going to have to do is come up here probably either tomorrow or Saturday. There’s a form that you’re going to have to fill out. And basically what it is, is you’re going to give me your name. And you’re going to have to send a certified letter to a parent.
CALLER: But I can’t tell my parents.
CLINIC: But if you just come here, what we need is an address to send a certified letter to. Even if the letter comes back to us, and it doesn’t get to the person it’s suppose to get to, once we wait 48 hours from when the letter went out, you can come in here and get a procedure.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: Does that make sense?
CALLER: Yeah.
CLINIC: Okay. All you have to do is come up here and give me your name on a form, and you just write down the name of the parent, and just put an address that this letter is going to go to. And then we’re going to send that letter out. And if that letter comes back to us, it doesn’t matter — even if it comes back, it’s returned, it doesn’t get to your parents, we have to at least attempt to reach a parent. And after 48 hours if we don’t hear anything from anybody or we get the letter back, we can schedule you for an appointment even though you’re under age.
CALLER: Okay. But you’re sure my parents wouldn’t find out that way?
CLINIC: Well, like I said, we have to at least attempt to reach a parent. And I have a hotline phone number that you can try to call if you want to. And it’s a way to go through the court to bypass — it’s like getting a waiver for parental rights and parental consent. And they can give you some information on what you could do to also get around telling your parents about it.
CALLER: Okay.
CLINIC: Do you want that phone number?
CALLER: Yeah, please.
CLINIC: Let me give you that phone number. And if you decide you want to come up here and fill out a form for us to send a letter to an address that you give us, you can still do that too. But you have to do it in person. You have to come up here.
CALLER: But if I go to the court or whatever, I don’t have to fill out the form?
CLINIC: Right. And they’ll tell you what you need to do if you go this way, okay? It’s 1-866-999-5263. So call that number, and they can give you some more information on what you could do if you want to go through the court. Otherwise, if you decide to come up here and fill out that form, you just make sure you do it in the next few days so that we can send the letter Monday, and we can do the procedure next week.
CALLER: Well, the thing is me and my boyfriend were talking about all this, and he said he would pay cash for everything, but we don’t want anyone to know about us. If he was paying for everything, would he have to sign anything or fill out any forms?
CLINIC: No, no. If he’s paying cash, he can just come with you when you come get your procedure, and he can pay the cash.
CALLER: Okay. So nobody has to know about him?
CLINIC: No. Okay? So just try that phone number. And then if you decide to come up here and fill out that form, we can do it that way.
CALLER: Well, I haven’t had a pregnancy test yet. Would you guys do that there?
CLINIC: So you don’t even know if you’re pregnant or not?
CALLER: Well, I just haven’t had my period since like early January.
CLINIC: Do you have any symptoms?
CALLER: I don’t know.
CLINIC: Yeah, we do free tests if you want to come up here and get a test.
CALLER: Well, when do you do them?
CLINIC: Well, we close at 5. If you want to come up here today, just the next time you go to the bathroom, just get a sample of your urine and put it in a container with a lid, bring it up here, and we’ll run it for you.
CALLER: What time are you open tomorrow?
CLINIC: Tomorrow we open at 8:30, and we’ll be closing at 5.
CALLER: If it turned out that I wasn’t pregnant, do you guys do birth control there?
CLINIC: No. We only can give birth control to our patients.
CALLER: Oh, okay. Where would I go to get birth control?
CLINIC: Planned Parenthood could help you there probably.
CALLER: But would they have to tell anybody?
CLINIC: No.
CALLER: What was your name?
CLINIC: My name’s Dawn.
CALLER: Okay. All right. So I can call you back if I have any questions?
CLINIC: Yeah, you can call back, and come up here for a test if you need to tomorrow. You could do that. And then at that same time you can fill out the form if you don’t go through the court, okay?
CALLER: Okay. Thank you.
CLINIC: Uh-huh. Bye bye.
***END***