sabrina tavernise So why don’t I start — if you can introduce yourself and say your name. vivian zwick O.K. Well, my name’s Vivian Zwick, and I’m 101 years old. And I came to this issue quite a long time ago. sabrina tavernise Did you know about abortion? vivian zwick No, I’d heard about it, but I really didn’t know much about it. I didn’t start really working for it until about the early ‘60s, just the time that Governor Rockefeller in New York signed the bill to have abortion available to everybody — not in Missouri, but in New York State. So we were just delighted that there was actually a place where you could get an abortion here in America. You know, before that, if you were a rich woman, you could go to Europe. But if you were a poor woman, you couldn’t. So we were sending people to New York. It was pretty underground. sabrina tavernise Does that seem — when you look back on it now, does that seem like an earlier time that just feels very old fashioned and distant? vivian zwick I’m afraid not.

[music]

[radio seeking]

sabrina tavernise

From The New York Times, I’m Sabrina Tavernise. This is “The Daily.” Today: When Brett Kavanaugh was nominated to the Supreme Court last summer, the future of abortion was thrown into doubt.

archived recording So we want to be sure that women, no matter where —

sabrina tavernise

And now, states are sprinting to make changes.

archived recording — to prohibit abortion of an unborn human individual.

sabrina tavernise

Red states are getting redder.

archived recording Activist in Ohio just pushed through —

sabrina tavernise

Blue states are getting bluer.

archived recording A woman’s right to control her own reproductive health. [APPLAUSE]

sabrina tavernise

Adjusting their abortion laws before a new conservative court takes a step. And that’s happening in real time in the Midwest, where two states right next to each other are moving in opposite directions, Missouri racing to stop abortion —

archived recording — the story last night on new legislation to outlaw all abortion in Missouri.

sabrina tavernise

— and Illinois scrambling to preserve it.

archived recording 1 He’s promised to make the state an abortion destination, vowing, quote — archived recording 2 Illinois will be the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to standing up for women’s reproductive rights.

[music]

sabrina tavernise

“Daily” producer Lynsea Garrison and I went there to see how this was all playing out on the ground. Our first stop: Missouri.

speaker 1 You know, it’s very hard to go out and be like, oh, I don’t believe in this. But I don’t believe in it. I don’t, and that’s why I’m out here. speaker 2 I don’t think everybody understands how dire a situation that we’re in. speaker 3 The pro-life movement is winning. I don’t know what it is exactly, but we’re winning, even without having Roe overturned. speaker 4 No abortions are taking place — none at all. Praise be to God. speaker 5 Missouri is in “The Handmaid’s Tale.” speaker 6 I believe Missouri Right to Life when they say Missouri is going to be the first state to outlaw abortion. [MUSIC]

sabrina tavernise

It’s Wednesday, April 17.

[radio seeking]

speaker (ON RADIO) God, you must show me what you’re up to in my life. gps voice Continue on I-270 South for 12 miles. lynsea garrison It’s like Elvis with a cross.

sabrina tavernise

Highway 70 cuts across the center of Missouri like a belt from the west of the state to the east.

[engine revving]

sabrina tavernise

Semi-trucks roar pass strip malls. There are pastures with cows and silos. It’s flat, straight, and kind of boring sometimes. So the billboards really pop out. There’s the Golden Pancake and kickasstrucks.com.

lynsea garrison Waffles, advertise your message on mobile.

sabrina tavernise

They tower over the highway every mile or so.

lynsea garrison (WHISPERING) Dairy Queen.

sabrina tavernise

And mixed in with those or other ones, billboards of babies and anxious women — these are about abortion, telling women it’s wrong.

sabrina tavernise More than just a free pregnancy test. gps voice Continue on I-270 —

sabrina tavernise

And they’re here by design, because I-70 is the way to get to the very last abortion clinic left in Missouri, in St. Louis, which is where we’re headed. So Lynsea and I get off the highway.

gps voice Take the next right onto Forest Park Avenue.

sabrina tavernise

And we drive until we get to the Planned Parenthood.

lynsea garrison Oh, here. Who’s this?

sabrina tavernise

The first thing we notice is that the building looks like a bunker.

sabrina tavernise No trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted.

sabrina tavernise

All the windows in the ground floor have been bricked up. We park the car and get out. There are two people in orange vests at the entrance. One of them is greeting everybody that passes through.

speaker Hello. lynsea garrison Morning. sabrina tavernise Lynsea will take it from here. speaker 1 Hey, good morning. speaker 2 Good morning.

lynsea garrison

Chapter 1. “The Movement.”

brian westbrook Hi sir, how are you today?

lynsea garrison

Brian Westbrook spends a lot of time on this sidewalk.

brian westbrook Hey. Good morning, ma’am. How are you?

lynsea garrison

It’s his full-time job.

brian westbrook It’s a beautiful day. Would you like a beautiful rose?

lynsea garrison

He comes here sometimes by himself, sometimes with his interns. And he sits for hours in this camping chair to wait for people to pass through the gate.

brian westbrook What’s that? speaker The heat. brian westbrook The heat? Yeah, I know. I know.

lynsea garrison

He’s young. He’s in his 30s.

brian westbrook Yes, ma’am.

lynsea garrison

He’s clean-cut, kind of preppy-looking. He kind of looks like an upbeat parking attendant.

brian westbrook I’m Brian. I’ll take care of you out here. No big deal. Oh, I got a rose! Do you want a rose?

lynsea garrison

But Brian doesn’t work for Planned Parenthood.

[music]

brian westbrook If you don’t go where abortions happen, Planned Parenthood might as well hang up a sign saying, open with the blessing of the Christian community. If we’re not there, there’s no one opposing them. And we need to oppose them, because we don’t agree.

lynsea garrison

Brian is the executive director for the Coalition for Life in St. Louis. And over the past eight years, he says he’s persuaded hundreds of women to keep their pregnancies. He calls them turnarounds.

archived recording The man, the myth, the legend. We all know him — the great Brian Westbrook. So put your hands together. [APPLAUSE]

lynsea garrison

And Brian Westbrook — he’s kind of a rock star in Missouri’s pro-life movement.

archived recording (brian westbrook) How is everybody? archived recording Good.

lynsea garrison

In a state that’s developed some of the most innovative ways to chip away at abortion access.

archived recording 1 Missouri lawmakers passed a law back in May that cuts off all funding for services associated with a abortion facility. archived recording 2 New legislation to outlaw all abortion in Missouri. archived recording 3 It would make it nearly impossible for a woman in Missouri to get an abortion. And just hours ago, it cleared a major hurdle toward becoming a reality.

lynsea garrison

But Missouri is most famous for one particular invention — a requirement that doctors have admitting rights at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic. The latest version of this law passed in 2005, shut down most of the rural clinics in the state who couldn’t meet that requirement. It was such a game changer that pro-life legislators around the country used it as a blueprint — North Dakota, Utah, Louisiana.

archived recording Clinics are fighting the law before it forces many places to close down.

lynsea garrison

And in Texas, but the law was challenged. And it went all the way up to the Supreme Court in one of the biggest cases on abortion in recent history.

archived recording Supporters have said, had the court gone the other way, that essentially would’ve made it almost impossible, certainly in the state of Texas, for most women to have an abortion, because it would have forced those clinics to close. This decision was written by Justice Stephen Breyer.

lynsea garrison

Since Roe v. Wade was decided, there have been at least 20 abortion cases that have made their way to the Supreme Court. Six of them came out of Missouri, this petri dish of abortion regulation.

archived recording (brian westbrook) I encourage you to go out, to evangelize, to pray.

lynsea garrison

And that’s why there’s only one clinic left in Missouri. And that clinic is hanging on by a thread.

archived recording (brian westbrook) They do about 6,000 abortions right here, right down the street, here in our local community.

lynsea garrison

It nearly closed last year when it lost its state funding. Right now, it’s kept open by donors.

archived recording (brian westbrook) But my staff is mostly here. Some of them are actually on the sidewalk right now, impacting girls as they drive into that abortion facility.

lynsea garrison

So to pro-lifers like Brian, that feels like winning.

archived recording (brian westbrook) So you want to meet that person where they’re at, say yes, I know it’s legal and it is absolutely your choice. But I know there’s a better choice for you. So I ask you to keep going, be fervent in your resolve. And one day, we will see an end to abortion here in St. Louis. God bless you guys. [APPLAUSE]

lynsea garrison

And being on the winning team, it shows.

brian westbrook How are you, my friend? speaker Fine. How are you? brian westbrook Doing great. Doing great.

lynsea garrison

In the near-decade of being on the sidewalk, Brian has perfected his approach. He saw the way most anti-abortion protesters were on the sidewalk, the ones who shouted and intimidated women, waving graphic images of aborted fetuses. And he wanted to find a new way.

brian westbrook If I was an abortion-bound woman, which I’m not, why would I stop?

lynsea garrison

And this is where he landed.

brian westbrook Hey, good morning. Good to see you today. Hi, sir, how are you today? Hey. Good morning, ma’am. How are you? Oh, I didn’t give her a rose! Hey, how about a rose for you? speaker I’m going to want some more. I’ll take one. brian westbrook White or red? White or red? speaker White. brian westbrook You’ve got it. Have a great one, ma’am. speaker You too.

lynsea garrison

But for Brian, this isn’t just about the image of friendliness. This is a numbers game to get as many turnarounds as possible.

brian westbrook Turnaround is defined as a woman who is going there for a pregnancy test, ultrasound or an abortion. We’re talking to her, whether it’s in the driveway or at the fence, and we ask her to leave. And she decides to leave immediately and go receive services from somewhere else. speaker You say, hey, what’s up? I’m with another organization offering free local resources. This is a coupon for a free ultrasound, free pregnancy tests, and free S.T.D. tests. It helps to talk fast. [LAUGHING] Don’t you think?

lynsea garrison

Brian constantly refines his techniques. He takes meticulous notes on what seems to work.

brian westbrook What doesn’t work? What would run more efficiently?

lynsea garrison

Which cars slow down.

brian westbrook How many people we can get to stop.

lynsea garrison

Why they slow down.

brian westbrook How many people leave.

lynsea garrison

Who takes brochure.

brian westbrook How many people are —

lynsea garrison

What he was wearing when they took those brochures.

brian westbrook That person did not stop and talk to me. Why didn’t they stop and talk to me? speaker We just keep track of stats — so if people stop and talk to us, things like that. lynsea garrison Is it like an Excel spreadsheet on your iPad? speaker Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. lynsea garrison Oh, wow. speaker Yup. brian westbrook It’s an app that already exists, and then we just modified it to fit our needs.

lynsea garrison

And he calls all of this “the data.”

brian westbrook No, there’s actually not very many pro-life sidewalk counseling apps that exist. Who knew, right?

lynsea garrison

And based on the data, here’s what he’s figured out.

[music]

lynsea garrison

The first rule of what he calls sidewalk counseling is you do not talk about sidewalk counseling.

brian westbrook You shouldn’t wear a pro-life T-shirt. Don’t wear a bunch of pro-life material while you’re out there. Our signage, for instance, doesn’t mention abortion. Don’t talk about baby or the pregnancy or anything else.

lynsea garrison

Number two —

brian westbrook Physics.

lynsea garrison

Demonstrate authority when approaching a car.

brian westbrook A lot of pro-lifers will walk with the car, kind of chase the car, as they go in. Instead, we’ll take one minor step towards the car in kind of an authoritative posture. And so subconsciously, they will slow down. And they’ll stop and figure out what we want to talk about.

lynsea garrison

Number three, be approachable.

brian westbrook So there are no graphic images. There’s no yelling. There’s no screaming. Waving with your left hand versus your right hand — as they’re driving, they’re making a right-hand turn. My left hand — I make myself just a little bit bigger, and I’m more approachable.

lynsea garrison

No hats. No dark makeup.

brian westbrook Basic sales and marketing is that you shouldn’t shade your eyes. Again, it’s more about removing versus adding. Simplifying — it’s really about simplifying. That’s what the data tells me. speaker Hey there, were you able to receive any of our information on free resources? O.K., this is a coupon. I’m with a local organization. I really like your nails. Those are cute. O.K. brian westbrook Now, if more people stopped with graphic images, then I would use graphic images. But less people stop when you use graphic images. You have to define your strategies, your techniques, everything in terms of your audience. And your audience is the driver. speaker O.K. So that’s a coupon for a free pregnancy test.

lynsea garrison

And he says it’s working. He points to the fact that abortions are down in the state, and his turnaround numbers are up. They only seem to be getting higher.

brian westbrook Our first year, we had 15 turnarounds. Since then, we’ve had 2,200 turnarounds.

lynsea garrison

So to Brian, that’s 2,200 babies saved.

speaker And a lot of people don’t consider this a social justice issue, but it is one.

lynsea garrison

And he’s passing those lessons on to the next generation.

speaker Yeah. So just let us know if we can help you. All right? brian westbrook Two things — so instead of “let us know,” because that’s always, like, the typical thing, more about “come out and talk with us.” speaker Yes. Yeah. brian westbrook “Come out and talk to us,” because it’s more definitive. speaker Right. brian westbrook And then as they’re driving away, “give us a call” instead of “let us know.” speaker Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah.

lynsea garrison

As we’re standing there, one of the clinic’s doctors pulls through the gate, and Brian spots him.

brian westbrook That’s David Eisenberg. So he’s the abortionist today. So they’re most likely doing abortions. So —

lynsea garrison

As the doctor parks his car and calmly walks through the parking lot, Brian turns up the charm offensive.

brian westbrook Dr. Eisenberg, it’s good to see you today. It’s a beautiful day.

lynsea garrison

And Dr. Eisenberg doesn’t even look up.

brian westbrook Have a good one, sir.

[music]

brian westbrook How are you, my friend?

lynsea garrison

It’s this really weird game. If Brian and his movement are on the offense in Missouri, working to become the first state in the nation to outlaw abortion, the doctors, the staff, the escorts — they’re playing this hard defense, fighting as hard as they can. But out here, it feels like only a matter of time.

brian westbrook Hey, good morning. speaker Would you like a coupon? brian westbrook Ma’am, how are you today?

sabrina tavernise

After the break, the doctors.

brian westbrook Dr. Eisenberg, good to see you today. It’s a beautiful day. lynsea garrison Chapter 2. “The Doctors.” david eisenberg David! David! How many babies today? How many women today? You don’t have to do this. We can find you another job. I’m like, I don’t want another job. This is the job I signed up for. This is the job I trained for. I’m a board-certified OB/GYN with a medical degree and a master’s degree who’s been on this career path to provide abortion care and be a medical director of a Planned Parenthood for a decade.

lynsea garrison

This is Dr. David Eisenberg. He’s the head doctor at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis.

david eisenberg Like, would you tell an astronaut who’d been in training for a decade, you know, you really should be a dermatologist. What? No way.

lynsea garrison

Every day, when he goes to work, he passes the protesters. And they’re not always peaceful like Brian. So Dr. Eisenberg invited us to his house one night to talk, away from the clinic, away from his patients, away from all protesters.

erin king Did you want to tell Sabrina and Lynsea anything about yourself? lynsea garrison You know how to laugh?

lynsea garrison

We met his wife, Erin, who’s also an OB/GYN.

david eisenberg [TODDLER GIGGLES] You don’t know how to laugh?

lynsea garrison

His two toddlers.

erin king Drop it.

lynsea garrison

And his dog, Cooper.

[barking]

lynsea garrison

After they put their kids to bed, Sabrina and I sat down with them in their backyard.

david eisenberg The most regulated thing is a woman’s uterus. sabrina tavernise And it’s clear it’s a political lightning rod, right? david eisenberg Right. And the people being struck by the lightning are the women who need the care. And it’s really sad. sabrina tavernise Is there a sense that things have gotten worse in Missouri? david eisenberg When you say is there a sense, I can only speak to my own personal opinion. sabrina tavernise For you — I mean, in your mind. david eisenberg It is harder to provide abortion care in Missouri than it was in 2009 when I got here.

lynsea garrison

Missouri legislators have dramatically changed the medical world he operates in, and for no apparent medical reasons — at least none that he can see.

david eisenberg Said that if you do five or more abortions in your health care facility, you must be a hospital or a licensed ambulatory surgical center. Why five?

lynsea garrison

Up until 2017, the state restricted the number of abortions a clinic could provide a month. The limit was four — four abortions a month.

david eisenberg Not five — four.

lynsea garrison

And then, here’s another one. If you’re a patient in Missouri and you want an abortion, you have to first get consent from a doctor, wait 72 hours, and then have that same doctor administer your abortion.

david eisenberg So this past winter, I got sick, had a G.I. bug, you know. I could not leave my house. There were 35 women on the schedule at Planned Parenthood for me to consent that day. Not only could I not consent them, the fact that I couldn’t consent them that day meant that they couldn’t get their abortion later that week or the following week, when I was scheduled to provide care. In February, we had an ice storm, where the week after the ice storm, I saw a 17-year-old girl with her mother who was now too far along to have a pill abortion, which is what she wanted — because during the ice storm the week before, her mom, driving her to the clinic from a hundred miles or more away, got in an accident and slid off the road. Well, the consequence of that was she had to come back the following week or two weeks later, but a long enough interval that she could not get the pill abortion that she wanted. This is a girl who’d never been to the OB/GYN before, had no reason to have a pelvic exam, who was now going to have to have a surgical abortion. And the first time she was going to ever have a pelvic exam was with me at the time of her surgical abortion. You know, I’ve taken care of young girls who are — the youngest girl that I’ve ever taken care of is 9 years old. When that girl found herself in the situation she was in and she needed care, there is only one institution in this region where she could go. And we were able to take care of her. And her specific social circumstances were so challenging that if I had to get her to a hospital in Chicago — which, by the way, is the next closest hospital-based abortion service that I’m aware of — I might as well have told her to go to Mars. So that’s what’s changed, right? I mean, there’s all kinds of things that have changed since I got here in 2009 that have made it harder for women to access the care that they need. sabrina tavernise How do keep track of them? I mean, do you put it on a spreadsheet or something, like Post-it notes? david eisenberg I mean, the fact is I live and breathe it every day. You know, I mean, every week, every month, every year that these things come up — I mean, I’ve lost track of it. That’s true. But you know, this is the reality that I live every day.

lynsea garrison

It’s become so complicated for Missourians that women are leaving the state. Many go across the Mississippi River to Illinois, a state that’s recently declared itself the most progressive in the country on abortion.

erin king I really enjoy that about my job and —

lynsea garrison

Dr. Eisenberg’s wife is a doctor at a place called Hope Clinic, right over the Illinois state line.

erin king People ask me all the time why I don’t do abortions in Missouri. First of all, it’s because it’s really hard to do abortions in Missouri. You have to follow a lot of rules.

lynsea garrison

Her name is Dr. Erin King.

sabrina tavernise Are there patients who are now going to Hope Clinic who would have gotten care in Missouri? erin king Absolutely. Yeah. We have seen more patients say that they would have been seen in Missouri, but were unable to access care. Fortunately, we are available, and fortunately, we are fairly close by. I don’t think that it’s a good answer for patients to have to come see us. It still means a longer time, a longer trip, more time off of work, whatever, more gas money. It’s just harder to access us. There’s no public transportation that comes to us. So I’m sure there are more patients that can’t get to us than can. sabrina tavernise What does it feel like being two doctors doing this in a place where it’s hard to do it? erin king I think I asked you this question on the way home the other day, didn’t I? david eisenberg Yeah. erin king I was driving home, and I was super frustrated about lots of things related to this — related to our state, related to people’s attitudes about abortion, our country, just a lot of things. And I think I said, is any doctor happy in their job? And then I said, no, wait, hold on, let me rephrase that. Is any doctor feeling good about what’s going on, essentially, in gynecology and, like, women’s health care right now? Is anyone happy about this? Can anyone physically say that they enjoy what they’re doing right now? Because I was just so angry. Like, I felt so frustrated that literally, like, everywhere we turn, I just, I can’t — it’s almost like, you get tired. It’s like one more thing, one more bad restriction coming down the pipeline, or one more way that our patients can’t get to us, or whatever. david eisenberg Right. erin king So it’s just, like, so frustrating. And there’s lots of things at anyone’s jobs that are frustrating. But I feel like you add that, or you add the person standing outside yelling at you that you are a horrible person or a horrible doctor or mean to your patients or hurting them in some way, it’s just like, you literally — like, sometimes I just — I’m never going to do this. I promise. But sometimes I just want to like, O.K., fine, later. See you. I’m done.

lynsea garrison

So in between juggling their two kids, they’re also juggling an entire region of patients seeking abortions.

erin king I don’t know, whatever restriction —

lynsea garrison

You might even say what’s left of abortion access in Missouri and in this region exists in large part because of them. And they pay a price for that, like the time that protesters showed up at their house.

erin king And every once in a while outside of the clinic, when I walk in, protesters will say something pretty close to, if you were to die right now, you are going to hell. And I’m like, is that a threat? Like, am I going to die right now? Is that what you’re saying? It’s every once in a while. And I think, in particular, after having children, we worry a little bit more about their safety. Like, would someone want to do something to them to hurt us, because they feel like we’re hurting patients or unborn children or whatever that they want to believe? david eisenberg But I mean, I will say that when we did have protesters at our house and we met with the F.B.I. and the U.S. Marshals Service and things, they classify these anti-abortion protesters the way that I classify them — as domestic terrorists. But they don’t see themselves that way. And that dissonance is hard for me to wrap my head around — just as hard as when the protester ends up needing an abortion and we still take care of her. lynsea garrison Has that happened? david eisenberg Yes. It comes with an enormous price in terms of emotional and political — and, you know, all kinds of prices we pay. But it’s worth it. It is more rewarding than anything else I can imagine doing in medicine. You know, you can’t fight every fight. So I guess we fight the fight in the way that we are best able to. I’m going to go take care of women, because that’s what I can do. [getting into and starting car]

[music]

speaker 1 Don’t be a coward. speaker 2 Ma’am, is that your daughter? speaker 1 Grow a backbone. That thing in the middle of your back — it’s called a backbone. speaker 2 You guys look alike. [INAUDIBLE] your son. One of them two was in your womb once yourself, right? How about it, ma’am? Think about it, kid.

sabrina tavernise

Tomorrow, we cross the Mississippi River into Illinois to visit Dr. King’s clinic.

speaker 2 Do you think about having a catch with him someday, shooting some hoops, man? How about it, dad? What do you guys need? Ma’am, if you think carefully about what this abortionist is going to do to that child, hon, that’s not going to solve your problems. How about it, guys? Think about that. You’re here to kill somebody. Guys, I can tell you don’t want to do this, but you can’t just go ahead and do it anyway. Right? Come on, guys. Thou shalt not kill. You know that. lynsea garrison I’m here to see Dr. King. Lynsea Garrison and Sabrina Tavernise. speaker Go in the door, all the way to the top stairs. Once you reach the top stairs, push a button on the wall. lynsea garrison Top stairs. O.K. speaker Dr. King will be up there. lynsea garrison Thank you so much. speaker Go ahead. [footsteps] speaker Come on in.

[music]

sabrina tavernise

Here’s what else you need to know today. Egyptian lawmakers have approved sweeping changes to the country’s Constitution. They would give its president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, unprecedented power and allow him to remain in office until the year 2030. The changes cement Sisi’s authoritarian control over Egypt. His regime has already jailed opponents, censored the media, and shut down websites critical of his government. The Egyptian people must now vote on the constitutional amendments, but a fair election is in doubt, given Sisi’s repeated attempts to suppress the opposition. And —

archived recording I want to show you again the first picture that we have from inside the cathedral. There it is. And obviously, that cathedral is not something anyone is going to be able to go into for a long time. But that —

sabrina tavernise

Authorities in Paris believe that the cause of a massive fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame was accidental and made worse by the absence of modern fire protections.

archived recording And you can still see that heat and fire there at the top of the arches. Of course, it’s impossible —

sabrina tavernise