Inside an Arizona abortion clinic: uncertainty looms and optimism reigns

"People were pretty nervous and stressed that they're not going to have a job until November," Goodrick said.

For a clinic rocked by Supreme Court decisions, it has become adept at weathering changes, Goodrick said. A ruling comes down, the staff adjusts its routines and schedules and continues to provide abortions with new limitations, which sometimes includes referring patients to clinics in California or Nevada.

The constant fluctuations have had their toll, though. The clinic, which Goodrick opened in 1999, usually averages about 350 patients a month. That total dropped in 2022 amid patient confusion over what would happen in the wake of Roe vs. Wade being overturned. Her small staff of 12 shrank to six, Goodrick said, as workers grew tired "from the stress of just not knowing."

The doctor and her staff had just gotten into the swing of their new routine when the state Supreme Court ruling came down.

"The patients are more anxious," Goodrick said. "It causes what the Republicans want, which is mayhem."

But this time, she hopes, will be different.

"We just have to get to Nov. 25," Goodrick said, referring to the date that a constitutional amendment, if approved, would take effect.

Confident that the political fight will turn in her favor, Goodrick has opened the clinic's doors to media from around the globe, who've descended on Arizona to chronicle the latest front in a nationwide battle over abortion.

Nurses wearing "abortion is healthcare" T-shirts moved deftly around the journalists, whom they've grown accustomed to filling their workplace the past week. On their lunch break, the staff crowded into the break room, bickering over Supreme Court justices.

"Which one's worse — [Clarence] Thomas or [Samuel] Alito?," one asked.

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