This 18-year-old gave a moving testimony about the barriers she faced to receive an abortion

On June 4, the House Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on “Threats to Reproductive Rights in America.” Eighteen-year-old Youth Testify leader HK Gray testified at the hearing about the barriers she faced when seeking an abortion in Texas as a minor, including needing a judicial bypass to obtain an abortion.

In her hearing testimony, Gray outlined the irony of anti-abortion laws and how they create more financial and logistical barriers to abortion access for those who need it most. Her full testimony is as follows:

Good morning and thank you to the chairman and ranking member for this opportunity to share my story and bring to light the very real ways restrictions to abortion access threaten our ability to make autonomous reproductive health decisions and raise the families we want.

My name is HK Gray. I am 18 years old and I came here today all the way from Fort Worth, Texas. I am an activist with Youth Testify, a leadership program through Advocates for Youth and the National Network of Abortion Funds. It is an honor to be able to speak before you today.

I became pregnant for the first time when I was 15 and had my daughter shortly after I turned 16. Immediately upon finding out I was pregnant, I knew I would continue the pregnancy. Despite a bit of preterm labor, my baby arrived right on time. She’s in her terrible twos now and I love her. I am fortunate to have the incredible support of my fiancé, but becoming a parent has also had challenges, like losing my friends and not being able to attend school. I’ve been on my own for a few years now because my father is homeless and my mother was incarcerated. They weren’t in a situation to support me legally, financially, or emotionally. I know they love me, but they’re unable to parent me the way I need them to, and the state requires.

After having my daughter, I tried to get a Paragard IUD, but I was unable to because in Texas, in order to get birth control, I need my parent’s consent — something I couldn’t get due to my parents’ situations. Although my doctor was sympathetic, she couldn’t legally give it to me.

A few months later, I became pregnant again, but I miscarried. Ten months after giving birth to my daughter, I realized I was pregnant for a third time. When I told my fiancé, we knew what the other was feeling. We couldn’t afford a second child and it was hard when I had to go back to work a week after having my daughter because I didn’t have paid parental leave. Adoption wasn’t the right decision for us because if I continued the pregnancy I would have wanted to parent, and the WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid programs aren’t enough as it is.

When I tried to get an abortion, I didn’t realize how hard it would be. Texas requires parental consent for anyone under 18 years old. It’s not that my parents would have opposed my decision, it’s that they weren’t physically able to give the consent. This was a new concept to me because it’s something I didn’t have to do when I had my daughter. It seemed weird to me that I didn’t need anyone’s permission to become a parent, but I needed to prove to the state that, as a parent, I was mature enough to not have another child.

Thankfully, I found Jane’s Due Process, an organization that helped me find a clinic and connected me to a lawyer who walked me through the judicial bypass process. I had to get an ultrasound to take to court and prove how far along I was.

A few weeks later, when I finally went to court, it was a long day and honestly it was very hard on me. The judge said some hurtful things about me being sexually active, being a young parent, and wanting an abortion. I felt shamed no matter which decision I made. The judicial bypass process is a burden and barrier to abortion access.

My actual abortion was pretty straightforward. The providers were kind and treated me like an adult. I was glad to get back home to care for my daughter. The irony of this whole experience is that I could make medical decisions for my daughter, but not for myself. When I take my daughter to see a doctor, I’m treated like an adult, but I couldn’t get routine care at the dentist or get birth control without my parents’ permission.

I believe we need more support in this country for young women and transgender people who want to be able to access birth control or want to parent or want an abortion, or like me, needed all of those things at different points in my teenage years.

Government restrictions on abortion hurt those of us who have fewer resources, or are people of color or undocumented or living with disabilities or poor or queer. In Texas, the state prohibits all types of health insurance from covering abortion care and we have to pay out of pocket. I couldn’t afford my abortion, but thankfully a family member lent me the money. Like me, most people seeking abortions are already parenting and are balancing paying for child care, food, and rent. In Texas, 96 percent of counties do not have abortion clinics, impacting nearly half of Texas women. We have to figure out how to take time off work or school to travel to get an abortion, find someplace to stay, and pay for it all. We are forced to listen to government-mandated, medically inaccurate counseling, and wait 24 hours and go to the doctor twice before getting an abortion. Unlike me, the majority of people who have abortions are people of color, and we must respect their decisions. I wish there was more support for people of color who are impacted by these restrictions harder than I am.

We need more love and compassion for families and young people like me. I had a child, I had a miscarriage, and I had an abortion. As we say at the National Network of Abortion Funds, “everyone loves someone who had an abortion.” Thank you for your time, and I hope my story helps you remember these laws that you pass impact your constituents, like me, and your loved ones who have abortions.”