"I love providing this care" Abortion clinics in liberal U.S. states prepare for more patients

Record ID: 1658906

  • Title: "I love providing this care" Abortion clinics in liberal U.S. states prepare for more patients
  • Date: 8th February 2022
  • Summary: SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 1, 2022) (REUTERS) PLANNED PARENTHOOD FACILITY SIGNAGE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD REGIONAL OFFICE VARIOUS OF ANTI-ABORTION PROTESTERS SIGN FOR PROTEST GROUP MORE VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) BEN ITO, 40, STAFF PASTOR AT CITY BIBLE CHURCH IN SACRAMENTO, SAYING: "Most simply, abortion is murder. Uh, according to the scripture, or the Bible. Humanity begins at the moment of conception when the baby has its own DNA, its own personhood at that point. Um, and so, uh, it's wrong, always wrong to take the life of, uh, of a person." SIGNAGE FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD MAR MONTE B STREET HEALTH CENTER MORE PROTESTERS OUTSIDE PLANNED PARENTHOOD FACILITY DR. JESSICA HAMILTON, ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF ABORTION SERVICES AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD, IN THE EXAM ROOM DURING THE INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. JESSICA HAMILTON, ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF ABORTION SERVICES AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD, ON EXPECTING MORE PATIENTS SHOULD ROE V. WADE BE OVERTURNED, SAYING: "I do, and we're getting ready for it. I mean, that is what all of this work in terms of training optimization, expanding our gestational age, making sure we can keep patients as comfortable and safe as possible within the health centers. 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." VARIOUS OF WOMEN'S SANITARY PAD IN BOX ON THE EXAM TABLE VARIOUS OF GLOVES ON THE WALL (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. JESSICA HAMILTON, ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF ABORTION SERVICES AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD, SAYING: "Yeah, I mean, we've certainly seen a slight uptick in patients from out-of-state coming into the health centers. I have seen a few patients from Texas. Sometimes these patients just happened to be traveling to California, and it kind of works for them to have their abortion in California. Other times, patients have family members who are in the state and it just works for them. They can come and stay with their family and then get their services at a PPMM (Planned Parenthood Mar Monte) PP Mar Monte." VARIOUS OF HAMILTON IN EXAM ROOM DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. JESSICA HAMILTON, ASSOCIATE MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF ABORTION SERVICES AT PLANNED PARENTHOOD, ABOUT WHY SHE WORKS IN WOMEN'S HEALTH CARE SERVICES, SAYING: "I love providing this care. I find it to be just so incredibly important to be able to be there for an individual when they're facing a time of crisis, a time of uncertainty, a time where they might be, feel shame or be blaming themselves to be able to alleviate some of that in a way that's safe and supportive just, you know, just brings incredible value to my life. I'm the mother of two beautiful children, and I feel really lucky to have a career that I love and to have two children that I love and a family that I love. And I just want to be able to bring that choice and that autonomy over one's body in one's lives, to people everywhere. I just find it incredibly rewarding and incredibly important." PAN OF EXTERIOR OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD FACILITY / PROTESTERS OUT FRONT VARIOUS OF PROTESTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) KENNETH CALVIN JR., 30, OUTREACH DIRECTOR AT SUN RIVER CHURCH IN RANCHO CORDOVA AND SACRAMENTO RESIDENT, WHEN ASKED ABOUT PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S EXPANSION PLANS AMID POSSIBLE OVERTURNING OF ROE VS. WADE, SAYING: "Now I disagree with what they're doing. I don't, I don't think that it's right. I don't think that they're helping women. I think that tons of women, there's plenty of statistics out there to show it. I don't have them ready right now. But there's a lot of women really walking away, very hurt by the services that they have provided them, the encouragement that they have given them, given them, you know, to terminate the pregnancy, to terminate the life of their child. And that's a consequence that a lot of women are faced with because of what this place is doing and how they advocate for it." VARIOUS OF PROTESTER (SOUNDBITE) (English) BEN ITO, 40, STAFF PASTOR AT CITY BIBLE CHURCH IN SACRAMENTO, ON WOMEN WHO COME TO CALIFORNIA FOR ABORTIONS, SAYING: "And so if more women come to California in order to have an abortion, well that's more people that perhaps I have the opportunity to tell that message to."
  • Embargoed: 22nd February 2022 10:54
  • Keywords: California California Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood Roe vs Wade abortion abortion rights pro-choice pro-life
  • Location: LONG BEACH + SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / AUSTIN + HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES / WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City: LONG BEACH + SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES / AUSTIN + HOUSTON, TEXAS, UNITED STATES / WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Lawmaking,Government/Politics,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA001FXTBW3R
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Abortion providers in liberal states are expanding clinics, training more staff, and boosting travel assistance to prepare for an influx of patients from conservative states if the U.S. Supreme Court ends the constitutional right to the procedure.
    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 the 1973 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.
    When asked about Planned Parenthood's planned expansion of facilities and trainings, protester Kenneth Calvin Jr., a Sacramento resident and outreach director at Sun River Church, said he remained opposed to any action of the women's health care center.
    "Now I disagree with what they're doing. I don't, I don't think that it's right. I don't think that they're helping women. I think that tons of women, there's plenty of statistics out there to show it. I don't have them ready right now. But there's a lot of women really walking away, very hurt by the services that they have provided them, the encouragement that they have given them, given them, you know, to terminate the pregnancy, to terminate the life of their child. And that's a consequence that a lot of women are faced with because of what this place is doing and how they advocate for it," he said.
    '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 a 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've certainly seen a slight uptick in patients from out-of-state coming into the health centers. I have seen a few patients from Texas. Sometimes these patients just happened to be traveling to California, and it kind of works for them to have their abortion in California," said Dr. Hamilton of the Planned Parenthood chapter in Sacramento.
    For protester Ben Ito, a staff pastor at City Bible Church in Sacramento, he sees an uptick in patients coming to California as an opportunity to preach and encourage them into seeking options other than abortion.
    "If more women come to California in order to have an abortion, well that's more people that perhaps I have the opportunity to tell that message to," he said.
    Last month, in cooperation with a private clinic, the group of Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, 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.
    (Production: Nathan Frandino, Sharon Bernstein)
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