For someone seeking an abortion after their sixth week of pregnancy in Texas right now, the answer is simple: leave. Travel to a different state where you can access an abortion after six weeks, which, in Texas, is illegal under S.B. 8 . Its the only option left, even if its a logistical and financial nightmare.

But what if you cant travel out of state? What if traveling at all whether to go to the grocery store or the nearest clinic three hours away puts you at risk of being detained or deported? Thats the reality for undocumented people trying to access abortion care in Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Home to around 1.3 million people, the Rio Grande Valley is an abortion clinic desert, said Cathy Torres, the organizing manager at the Frontera Fund , a reproductive justice organization that provides financial and logistical support to undocumented people in the valley seeking abortions. The region, which includes four counties, only has one abortion clinic, Whole Womans Health in McAllen the only abortion clinic from San Antonio, Texas, (four hours north of the valley) to Mexico City (eight hours south).

The valley sits at the southern tip of Texas, an area bordered by the Gulf Coast on the east and the Rio Grande River along the U.S./Mexico border on the west. Within 100 miles of the border, the valley also contains nearly 20 internal immigration checkpoints run by the Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Patrol. If an undocumented person comes across one of these checkpoints and is asked to show documentation but doesnt have it, they will be immediately detained.

You cant go to Mexico if youre undocumented and you also cant leave the valley because an hour north of you theres another man-made border crossing, Torres said. Youre either forced into parenthood or risking deportation. Those are your two options if youre undocumented and pregnant and dont want to be.