A Texas coffee shop has served cafe au lait and danishes along with contraception kits for just over a month, igniting a firestorm of protest from anti-abortion activists who are critical of the shop's campaign, according to Newsweek.
In late July, Tumbleweed + Sage Coffeehouse in Wolfforth, a suburb of Lubbock, began giving away free contraception kits in response to the Supreme Court’s June 24 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Clinic, which overturned the 1973 case Roe v. Wade and immediately made abortion illegal in most cases in Texas.
By reversing what it called the "wrongly decided" Roe, which established a federal right to abortion, the Supreme Court returned the question of abortion back to the states.
In Texas, an 1857 "trigger law" that criminalized performing or "furnishing the means for" an abortion, except in cases where the mother's life is at risk, is scheduled to take effect on Aug. 25, according to Newsweek.
Texas became one of the states with the most stringent abortion laws after a measure passed in December that banned abortions once a fetal heartbeat could be detected. Newsweek reports that Planned Parenthood in Texas stopped providing abortions as of June 24.
Tumbleweed + Sage owner Destiny Adams felt compelled to do something.
She reportedly started leaving contraception kits worth $60 in the bathroom of her shop in late July. Customers can now pick one up inside the shop or by going through the drive-thru.
Working in partnership with Texas nonprofit Jane's Due Process, each kit provides two Plan B emergency contraception pills, pregnancy tests, condoms and an instruction pamphlet.
The coffee shop posted a "thank you" to its supporters on its website. Adams told McClatchy News it gave at least 75 kits as of Aug. 18.
"I left west Texas 25 years ago – partially because of the political bs that happens on the daily," Amy Stephens wrote on the shop’s Facebook page. "Thank you for taking a stance in the community, and for caring so much. You give hope!"
"Thank you for supporting and loving our community," Kelby Campbell wrote on Facebook. "Knowing that access to emergency contraception is so easily accessible has saved me so much fear and stress. I'm so incredibly happy to have y'all fighting so hard for what is right!!”
The coffee shop's campaign has drawn the ire of anti-abortion activists, many of whom have gathered outside to protest on Saturdays and alerted Wolfforth police about the initiative.
"The Wolfforth Police Department is aware that a business in Wolfforth is offering 'free plan b kits' to anyone wanting them," the police said in a statement posted to Facebook. "We have received many calls and emails questioning the legality of this practice. Unfortunately, the legality of the practice is not a simple question to answer."
Contraception, including birth control and emergency contraceptives, remains constitutionally protected in Texas as they are considered legally different that abortion-inducing drugs, according to Newsweek.
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