Inside an Arizona abortion clinic: uncertainty looms and optimism reigns

Sitting at a folding table laden with snacks, Dr. Jessica Holmes peered at the clinic's schedule on her laptop.

"Are you doing through June, or only the first eight days?" Holmes asked.

"No, we'll go through June," Goodrick answered briskly.

Opposing forces of optimism

Standing on the sidewalk a few yards from the clinic door, antiabortion activists were similarly optimistic about the future of Arizona's abortion law.

"We accept it as a victory and we're very excited," said Matt Engelthaler, 49, who has protested abortions since he was a teenager, when he first joined his parents to pray outside clinics. "But we also realize that changing laws isn't what's gonna do anything, it's just changing hearts. That's what we pray for."

Engelthaler fingered rosary beads as he held a sign that says "Choose life." A Catholic, he said he prayed the rosary "for the moms, dads and the babies," and another prayer for the abortion clinic's workers, "that they can understand the travesty of what they're doing and turn away from it."

A passing car honked, and the driver stuck his middle finger in the air at the protesters.

"People just don't know how to do the peace sign correctly," Engelthaler said with a laugh.

A few minutes later, another car honked and the driver gave a thumbs up.

By the clinic door, three volunteers wearing bright, rainbow-colored vests escorted patients from their cars into the clinic, blocking their view of the sidewalk protesters with large, rainbow umbrellas. Michael Bublé played on a nearby speaker, ready to drown out any protester's megaphone.

"When they go loud, we go louder," said one escort, who declined to give her name. She said her group of volunteers would continue serving at the clinic until they're told to stop.

One of the patients, a 26-year-old from Phoenix, said the escorts' music lifted her spirits on an otherwise bleak day. She took Scooter into her arms and, stroking the dog's back, told the doctor that she found out she was pregnant two days after the state Supreme Court decision.

"It has just been draining, in that sense of like, wow — this would happen this week," the patient said.

She said that as Christians, her family vehemently opposes abortions and would support her if she decided to have a baby. The woman said she and her partner decided to keep the abortion private.

"It's definitely confusing and emotional, considering, like, my upbringing," she said. But referring to the escorts outside who welcomed her, she added, "it's also encouraging, in a sense, because you do feel this community."