Lack of abortion access troubles Guam's 1st female governor

Lourdes Leon Guerrero vigorously defended abortion rights as she campaigned to become the first female governor of Guam. She won, but now no doctors are willing to perform the procedure she fought so hard to defend.

The last abortion provider in the heavily Catholic U.S. territory retired in May 2018. That's forcing women seeking to end their pregnancies to fly thousands of miles from the remote Pacific island a costly and sometimes prohibitive step.

"I truly believe that women should have control of their bodies," Gov. Guerrero, a former nurse, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Thursday. "I'm very sad and very nervous about what's happening across the nation." Several conservative states like Alabama and Missouri have passed tough abortion restrictions as they take aim at the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion across the United States.

Guam's law , which Guerrero described as "very restrictive," allows abortion, but doctors also have the legal right to deny services unless it's a medical emergency. Abortions are allowed within 13 weeks, but anyone who terminates a pregnancy without help from a doctor can be charged with a felony.

Guerrero said she believes that doctors in Guam would still perform abortions if a woman's life were in danger, but she's concerned that other women will be forced to seek illegal or dangerous alternatives.

"That's my fear," she said. "I'm concerned about it going underground because then we can't really control it, we can't really monitor, we can't really make sure that the women are doing it in an environment that is conducive to a healthy recovery."