The night before her abortion, Melissa had to travel to another state. She drove overnight from Ohio to Michigan, and didn’t reach her hotel until 3 a.m. But just a few hours later, she had arrived on time for her 8 a.m. check-in at the front desk of Northland Family Planning in Sterling Heights, Mich.
Melissa is part of a record surge of abortion patients pouring into Michigan since Roe v. Wade was overturned this summer. For nearly three months, Melissa says, she had been trying — and failing — to find an abortion closer to home. By the time she arrived at Northland, she was 14 weeks pregnant.