An Australian woman has spoken out after she was detained and interrogated by US border control about whether or not she'd had an abortion.
On Friday, 24 June, millions of women lost the right to have an abortion after the Roe v Wade ruling - which had been in action since 1973 - was overturned by the US Supreme Court. The move has been met with outcry, from American women pledging to go on a sex strike to a nurse speaking out about why she chooses to give abortions.
A woman from Brisbane, Madolline Gourley, has since revealed her experiences of travelling through Los Angeles, US on her way to Canada on 30 June.
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Gourley was travelling by herself to Canada for a holiday, having found accommodation by offering to house-sit and cat-sit for a resident.
However, on her way over from Australia, she ended up in a detention room in Los Angeles.
The 32-year-old explained that as she was going through immigration, the officer she was speaking to 'didn't bother to look' at her luggage receipt which listed her two connecting flights.
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Speaking to UNILAD, she continued: "He got mad I couldn't show the boarding passes for [LA Airport] to [Philadelphia International Airport] or [Philadelphia] to Montreal. I realise a luggage/baggage receipt is not a proper boarding pass, but that's because I wasn't issued connecting boarding passes when I checked in at Brisbane International Airport in Australia. I offered to show an email from American Airlines with the booking info – he wasn't interested in that either."
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Gourley claims she was interrogated twice at the border by US officials, as well as being photographed and fingerprinted, and physically patted down by a female officer. This same officer is also said to have repeatedly asked the Brisbane resident whether or not she was pregnant.
Gourley told Guardian Australia: "She was walking me from one room to the next, and she asked the pregnancy question again. I don’t know if she had forgotten, or she wanted to work out if I was lying or something."
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In response to being told by Gourley she was not pregnant, the official then questioned the traveller about whether she had 'recently had an abortion'.
"I don’t know the thought process behind that… I just thought, ‘What’s the relevance of that to my situation?'" Gourley stated.
After being detained, Gourley was told she wasn't allowed to continue her journey to Canada, and returned to Brisbane on the next flight, just five hours after she had arrived in LA.
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Officials told her the reason for her deportation was that she had breached the conditions of the visa waiver programme.
The visa waiver programme 'enables most citizens or nationals of participating countries* to travel to the United States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less without obtaining a visa', according to Travel State Gov.
In order to meet the conditions of the programme, travellers must have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), be a citizen or national 'of a VWP designated country' and have the 'correct type of passport'.
Applicants are also banned from engaging 'in any type of employment or get compensation for services rendered' - which includes obtaining free accommodation by house-sitting, despite Gourley having travelled through the US to do it before - according to a spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
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After returning to Brisbane, Gourley noted she hadn't been given any documentation from US immigration about what her deportation meant for potential future travel, saying: "All I got was a stamp at the back of my passport saying entry was refused on 30 June 2022."
The 32-year-old hopes her story can be used as a cautionary tale for other travellers, noting 'this could happen to them'.
"Even if you've got all the relevant documentation and a flight back home, sometimes that's still not good enough. Sometimes immigration just don't want to listen," she said.
The CBP spokesperson reflected on the interrogation of Gourley by US officials by stating it takes 'allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously'.
It continued: "CBP regrets any inconvenience or unpleasantness a passenger may have experienced during his/her CBP processing.
"We take allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously. CBP has standard procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. If we confirm employee misconduct, we will take firm and appropriate action to correct the situation."
For help, support and advice about abortion, contact the National Abortion Federation on 1-800-772-9100, EST 8am-7pm EST Monday to Friday or EST 8am-4pm EST Saturday to Sunday.
Poppy Bilderbeck