As US abortion access wanes, this doctor travels to fill a void
ABC News
Dr. Shelly Tien travels between states to provide abortions as access fades.
Inside Planned Parenthood's Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, a quiet space with few windows and stock photos of the city lining the walls, a woman tapped her hand against her stomach as Dr. Shelly Tien performed a surgical abortion.
Tien, 40, had flown to Birmingham the day before, and she would return home to Jacksonville, Florida, that night. A week earlier, she performed abortions at a clinic in Oklahoma. She's among an estimated 50 doctors who travel across state lines, according to the National Abortion Federation, to provide abortions in places with limited abortion access.
"You're doing great," Tien told the woman on the exam table. "So strong. Breathe. Excellent job."
A maternal-fetal medicine specialist, Tien spends hours power-walking through airports, driving rental cars and FaceTiming her boyfriend from hotels so she can help women end pregnancies where they otherwise could not because no local doctors are able or willing.
