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 Planned Parenthood is enlarging several clinics in California and
has purchased land to build a bigger clinic in Reno, Nevada. In
Illinois, abortion providers have set up a logistics center to help
make medical care arrangements for women from states where abortion
is expected to be restricted.
Clinic operators said they were also increasing services in
Minnesota, New York and Virginia ahead of a Supreme Court decision
expected by early summer. Many court watchers believe the
six-justice conservative majority will weaken or overturn Roe v.
Wade decision that made abortion legal nationwide.
The court's ruling could dramatically curtail abortion access in the
United States, where the issue remains politically divisive despite
public polling showing a majority of Americans believe the procedure
should be legal in all or most cases.
A decision to overturn Roe would trigger laws ending the right to an
abortion in 26 states, mostly in the Midwest, South and parts of the
West. It would also embolden abortion opponents to seek restrictions
in states where it remains legal.
"We are getting ready for this post-Roe world and getting ready to
continue to be the safety net for patients from all over the
country," said Dr. Jessica Hamilton, associate medical director for
abortion services for a Planned Parenthood chapter that covers much
of California and Nevada.
Hamilton treats patients seeking abortion care at the organization's
Sacramento clinic while protesters march outside. Two days a week,
nurse practitioners, physician assistants and medical students work
and train alongside doctors, deepening the ranks of providers.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has pledged the state will be a
"sanctuary" for U.S. women seeking abortions. Yet divisive politics
have complicated efforts to protect and expand access, even in this
and other heavily Democratic states.
Stacy Cross, president of the Planned Parenthood chapter that
includes California's more conservative Central Valley, is concerned
abortion opponents could hinder plans to expand a clinic in Visalia.
Since the city's planning commission approved a larger site for the
clinic in December, abortion opponents have called for protesters to
speak out against the project when the city council considers it at
a meeting next month.
The address of the planned site for a new clinic in Reno has not
been released for security and safety reasons, a Planned Parenthood
spokeswoman said.
Should Roe get overturned or weakened, anti-abortion advocates said
they expect to see increased activism around the issue in all 50
states.
"You're going to see both sides doing whatever they can," said Carol
Tobias, president of National Right to Life, an anti-abortion
organization.
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 'REAL STIGMA' AROUND ABORTION
Last year, states passed 10 times more
restrictions on abortions than protections,
according to the Guttmacher Institute, a
reproductive rights research and policy
organization.
"There’s real stigma around abortion across the
country, even in progressive spaces," said
Elizabeth Nash, a state policy expert at
Guttmacher. With Roe as settled law, many
politicians on the left have not grappled with
abortion as part of their routine work for
nearly 50 years, she said.
Abortion providers got a preview of a post-Roe landscape last year
when Texas enacted the country's strictest anti-abortion law,
banning the procedure after about six weeks.
Clinics in states including California, Illinois, New Mexico and
Oklahoma experienced a surge in patients from Texas, abortion
providers said.
"We saw and continue to see this massive ripple effect," said Dr.
Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of
the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.
Last month, in cooperation with a private clinic, McNicholas' group
opened a logistics center in Illinois aimed at helping women from
Texas and other states travel to obtain abortions.
Whole Woman's Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas,
recently set up a telehealth office in neighboring New Mexico to
serve women seeking medication abortions past six weeks, said Amy
Hagstrom Miller, the organization's president and CEO.
To obtain the pills, however, women must provide a New Mexico
address where the medication can be mailed and undergo a video exam
from a New Mexico location.
"Texas is having a dress rehearsal for what we can expect across the
country as Roe is either overturned or further chipped away at,"
Hagstrom Miller said.
Whole Woman's Health also plans to expand operations in Minnesota.
The Upper Midwest state borders several largely rural, conservative
states likely to ban or severely restrict abortion if Roe is
weakened, Hagstrom Miller said. There are also non-stop flights to
Minneapolis/St. Paul from every Texas city where the group operates.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and David
Gregorio)
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