Although
Roe vs Wade remains the law of the land, women can no longer get a legal
abortion in two states, Oklahoma and South Dakota. In at least one other,
Missouri, they can no longer make an appointment. And in a fourth state,
Wisconsin, clinics will not schedule abortions for after the end of the Supreme
Court’s term in late June.
اضافة اعلان
Before May 2, when
a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe was leaked, there had
been at least one abortion clinic in every state. But in some states, health
care providers are not waiting for the actual decision to be issued to start
operating as if Roe were overturned.
“It’s already
happening,” said Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College
who studies abortion accessibility. She is leading a national survey of
abortion clinics and supplied data on her recent findings, which was verified
by The New York Times.
The changes in the
last few weeks suggest how quickly an overturning of Roe could reduce abortion
access across the South and Midwest, which would be a hard-fought victory for
the anti-abortion movement. Roe guarantees a constitutional right to abortion
until the point of fetal viability, around 23 weeks, and without it, around
half of states are expected to ban the procedure. Many of those states already
had limited access — six had a single clinic, and three had two — and various
restrictions that made abortions harder to get. Now it is changing from hard to
impossible, at least without crossing state lines.
In Oklahoma,
clinics have stopped operating because the state passed a new ban, even though
it clearly conflicts with Roe. “We haven’t had abortion for two and half
weeks,” said Susan Braselton, a clinic escort and a board member of the Roe
Fund in Oklahoma, which helps patients finance abortions.
“From the moment
life begins at conception is when we have a responsibility as human beings to
do everything we can to protect that baby’s life and the life of the mother,”
Governor. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma said in a statement upon signing the ban last
month. “If other states want to pass different laws, that is their right, but
in Oklahoma we will always stand up for life.”
The only clinic in
South Dakota, Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, which also served patients
from North Dakota and Minnesota, performed its last abortion Monday, even
though the state has not yet banned it. Abortions at the clinic were already
sporadic. A Minnesota doctor flew in around once a month to provide them.
And in some other
states, legal abortion has become much more scarce. In Idaho there were four
clinics, but Planned Parenthood in Boise closed June 1. At another,
Compassionate Abortion Care in Boise, the only doctor is set to take a summer
vacation, and staff members are telling patients that abortion may not be legal
by the time he returns. A third is offering only medication abortion.
At Planned
Parenthood clinics across the country, phone recordings tell callers that
abortion remains legal and accessible, but some have stopped scheduling
abortions.
A banner at the top
of the website for Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says: “Our doors are open.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin will continue to help patients get the care
they need — including safe and legal abortion. No matter what.” But the
organization there decided to stop offering any new appointments for abortion
after June 25, anticipating that the court might release its opinion two days
later, on its last scheduled decision day. Wisconsin still has an 1849 law on
the books criminalizing abortion.
Danika Severino
Wynn, the vice president for abortion access at the Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, said in a statement that local affiliates were
independently deciding what to do as the court’s decision nears.
“Planned Parenthood
affiliates in these states that are extremely hostile to abortion access are
being forced to make the difficult decision whether or not to suspend providing
abortion services following the court’s decision, due to their state’s legal
landscape,” she said.
Even in states that
intend to ban abortions, many would allow the procedure to save the life of the
mother or for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. But with clinics closing in
states with bans, women eligible for such care may still need to travel to
receive it.
The legal limbo has
also been confusing for patients, said Dr Erin King, executive director of the
Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois.
“Every time a
restriction is enacted in a state, there’s mass confusion about how to comply
and what it means,” she said. “After the leak, we had patients calling to ask
if abortion was still legal.
“Trying to get
information out — as providers and organizations who work directly with patients,
that’s a huge part of the role.”
She said that — for now — the message they give patients is:
“Abortion is legal in this country. It may be very difficult to access in some
states, but it is legal.”
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