{"id":654,"date":"2024-09-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=654"},"modified":"2024-09-19T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-19T09:00:00","slug":"abortion-clinics-and-patients-are-on-the-move-as-state-laws-keep-shifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/?p=654","title":{"rendered":"Abortion Clinics\u00a0\u2014 And Patients \u2014 Are on the Move, as State Laws Keep Shifting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Soon after a series of state laws left a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, unable to provide abortions<\/a> in 2018, it shipped some of its equipment to states where abortion remained accessible.<\/p>\n

Recovery chairs, surgical equipment, and lighting from the Missouri clinic \u2014 all expensive and perfectly good \u2014 could still be useful to other health centers run by the same affiliate, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, in its three other states. Much of it went to Oklahoma, where the organization was expanding, CEO Emily Wales said.<\/p>\n

When Oklahoma banned abortion a few years later, it was time for that equipment to move again. Some likely ended up in Kansas, Wales said, where her group has opened two new clinics within just over two years because abortion access there is protected in the state constitution \u2014 and demand is soaring.<\/p>\n

Her Kansas clinics regularly see patients from Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and even Louisiana, as Kansas is now the nearest place to get a legal abortion for many people in the southern U.S.<\/p>\n

Like the shuffling of equipment, America\u2019s abortion patients are traveling around the nation to navigate the patchwork of laws created by the Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em> decision, which left policies on abortion to the states.<\/p>\n

Since that ruling, 14 states<\/a> have enacted bans with few exceptions, while other states have limited access<\/a>. But states that do not have an abortion ban in place have seen an 11% increase in clinician-provided abortions<\/a> since 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute<\/a>, a national nonprofit that supports abortion rights. Over 170,000 people traveled out of their own state to receive abortion care in 2023, according to the institute.<\/p>\n

Not all of the increase in abortions comes from interstate travel. Telehealth has made medication abortions easier to obtain without traveling. The number of self-managed abortions<\/a>, including those done with the medication mifepristone, has risen.<\/p>\n

And Guttmacher data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet<\/a> said the majority of the overall abortion increase in recent years came from in-state residents in places without total bans, as resources expanded to improve access.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat speaks, in a lot of ways, to the way in which abortion access really wasn\u2019t perfect pre-Dobbs<\/em>,\u201d Maddow-Zimet said. \u201cThere were a lot of obstacles to getting care, and one of the biggest ones was cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the estimated number of abortions provided in the U.S. rose to over 1 million, the highest number in a decade, according to the institute.<\/p>\n

Still, abortion opponents hailed an estimated drop in the procedure in the 14 states with near-total bans.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s encouraging that pro-life states continue to show massive declines in their in-state abortion totals, with a drop of over 200,000<\/a> abortions since Dobbs<\/em>,\u201d Kelsey Pritchard, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America<\/a>, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

Organizations in states where abortion remains legal feel the ripples of every new ban almost instantly. One Planned Parenthood affiliate with a clinic in southern Illinois, for example, reported a roughly 10% increase in call volume in the two weeks following the enactment of Florida\u2019s six-week abortion ban<\/a> in May. And an Illinois-based abortion fund, Midwest Access Coalition<\/a>, experienced a similar pattern the day the Dobbs<\/em> decision was announced in June 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hotline was insane,\u201d said Alison Dreith, the coalition\u2019s director of strategic partnerships.<\/p>\n

People didn\u2019t know what the decision meant for their ability to access abortions, Dreith said, including whether already scheduled appointments would still happen. The coalition helps people travel for abortions throughout 12 Midwestern states, four of which now have total bans with few exceptions.<\/p>\n

After serving 800 people in 2021, the Midwest Access Coalition went on to help 1,620 in 2022 and 1,795 in 2023. Some of that increase can be attributed to the natural growth of the organization, which is only about a decade old, Dreith said, but it\u2019s also a testament to its work. It pays for any mode of transportation that will get clients to a clinic, including partnering with another Illinois nonprofit with volunteer pilots who fly patients across state lines<\/a> on private flights to get abortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also book and pay for hotel rooms,\u201d Dreith said. \u201cWe give cash for food, and for child care.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Network of Abortion Funds, a coalition of groups that offer logistical and financial assistance to people seeking abortions, said donations increased after the Dobbs<\/em> decision, and its members reported a 39% increase<\/a> in requests for help in the following year. They financially supported 102,855 people that year, including both in-state and out-of-state patients, but have also seen a \u201cstaggering drop off\u201d in donations since then.<\/p>\n

Increased awareness about the options for abortion care, spurred on by an increase in news stories about abortion since the Dobbs<\/em> decision, may have fueled the rise in abortions overall, Maddow-Zimet said.<\/p>\n

Both sides now await the next round of policy decisions on abortion, which voters will make in November. Ballot initiatives in at least 10 states could enshrine abortion rights<\/a>, expanding access to abortions, including in two states with comprehensive bans.<\/p>\n

\u201cLives will be lost with the elimination of laws that protect more than 52,000 unborn children annually,\u201d wrote Pritchard of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, citing an analysis on the group\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Wales said her clinics in Kansas don\u2019t have enough appointments to accommodate everyone who reaches out about scheduling an abortion. In the early days after the Dobbs<\/em> decision, Wales estimated, only 20% of people who called the clinic were able to schedule an abortion appointment.<\/p>\n

The organization has expanded and renovated its facilities across the state, including in Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas. Its newest clinic opened in August<\/a> in Pittsburg, just 30 miles from Oklahoma. But even with all that extra capacity, Wales said her group still expects to be able to schedule only just over 50% of people who inquire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done what we can to increase appointments,\u201d Wales said. \u201cBut it hasn\u2019t replaced what were many states providing care to their local communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This story can be republished for free (details<\/a>).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soon after a series of state laws left a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri, unable to provide abortions in 2018, it shipped some of its equipment to states where abortion remained accessible. Recovery chairs, surgical equipment, and lighting from the Missouri clinic \u2014 all expensive and perfectly good \u2014 could still be useful to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}