Limited access to abortion clinics in U.S. adds pressure to rural West

Abortion facilities in rural areas in states where abortion is legal worry their lack of resources could not meet the increasing demand as there are more out-of-state patients.

In the central Oregon city of Bend, the sole Planned Parenthood clinic serving the eastern half of the state is bracing for an influx of patients, particularly from neighboring Idaho, where a trigger law banning most abortions is expected to take effect this summer.

“We’ve already started hiring,” said Joanna Dennis-Cook, the Bend Health Center Manager.

Across the U.S. West, many abortion providers serving rural areas were already struggling to meet demand in a vast region where staffing shortages and long travel distances are barriers to reproductive services for women. Oregon alone is larger geographically than the entire United Kingdom.

Some facilities serving rural communities in states where abortion remains legal worry those pre-existing challenges could be further compounded by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as more patients travel from states where the procedure is banned or greatly restricted.

Anticipating an abortion ban in Idaho, Oregon lawmakers earlier this year created a $15 million fund to increase access to abortion services.

Northwest Abortion Access Fund, a nonprofit that helps patients pay for travel and the procedure itself, has been tapped to receive the first $1 million. NWAAF has worked with the Bend clinic for 20 years, and they are collaborating to meet the needs of a growing number of patients.

Dennis-Cook says her clinic is providing additional training for staff and modifying schedules “to ensure that we can accommodate increases in patient numbers” as more people travel farther for care.

Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, 20 per cent of U.S. women already had to travel at least 42 miles to reach the nearest abortion clinic, according to 2014 data analyzed by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, which published its findings in The Lancet Public Health. Across much of eastern Oregon, that distance can jump to nearly 180 miles. As more states move to enact trigger bans on abortion, distances could increase further for many patients.