TITLE: Kentucky woman seeking court approval for abortion learned her embryo no longer has cardiac activity
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-kentucky-lawsuit-6c1b00702cf915486333bf54eb2db2de
EXCERPT: The flurry of individual women petitioning a court for permission for an abortion is the latest development since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. The Kentucky case is similar to a legal battle taking place in Texas, where Kate Cox, a pregnant woman with a fatal condition, launched an unprecedented challenge against one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the U.S.
But unlike the Texas case, little is known about the Kentucky plaintiff. Her attorneys have insisted they would fiercely protect their client’s privacy, stressing that Jane Doe believes “everyone should have the right to make decisions privately and make decisions for their own families,” Amber Duke, executive director for the ACLU of Kentucky, said last week. Her legal team also declined to disclose whether Jane Doe still needed an abortion.
Instead, Jane Doe’s attorneys urged other women who are pregnant and seeking an abortion in the Bluegrass State to reach out if they are interested in joining the case. The lawsuit says Kentucky’s near-total abortion ban violates the plaintiff’s rights to privacy and self-determination under the state constitution.
“Jane Doe sought an abortion in Kentucky, and when she could not get one, she bravely came forward to challenge the state’s abortion ban,” ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project deputy director Brigitte Amiri said in a statement. “Although she decided to have an abortion, the government denied her the freedom to control her body. Countless Kentuckians face the same harm every day as the result of the abortion ban.”
According to court documents, Jane Doe had a medical appointment on Dec. 8 — after the lawsuit was filed — where no cardiac activity was discovered after an ultrasound was performed.
In the Texas case, Cox, a 31-year-old mother of two, had been seeking court permission to end her pregnancy in a state where abortion is only allowed in narrow exceptions when the life of the mother is in danger — not for fetal anomalies. Before the Texas Supreme Court on Monday rejected Cox’s request, her attorneys said she had left the state to get an abortion elsewhere because she could not wait any longer due to concerns that remaining pregnant would jeopardize her health and her ability to have more children.
TITLE: Thousands more people are now traveling to Kansas for abortions, research finds
https://www.kcur.org/2023-12-07/kansas-abortion-travel-thousands-more-guttmacher-research
EXCERPT: Eighty-one out of every 100 patients who go to the Trust Women clinic for an abortion have crossed state lines to get there. An average of 54 are from Texas, 21 are from Oklahoma and six are from another state that doesn’t border Kansas, clinic officials say.
“Our clinic receives an average of 3,000 to 4,000 phone calls a day,” said Zachary Gingrich-Gaylord, the Wichita clinic’s communications director. “We have capacity for around 40 to 50 appointments per clinic day.”
The estimates reinforce new research that shows the extent to which Kansas continues to be a significant abortion access point for people living in states with abortion bans.
In the first half of 2023, 65% of abortion patients in Kansas traveled here from outside the state — the second-highest percentage of any state in the country, according to the analysis from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Researchers estimated that 3,700 more people traveled to Kansas for an abortion over the first six months of 2023 compared with a similar period in 2020.
That rise is part of a nationwide surge in abortion-related travel. In the first six months of 2023, 92,100 Americans traveled outside their home state for abortions — more than double the number from 2020.
“Nearly 1 in 5 patients are now traveling out-of-state for abortion care,” said Kimya Forouzan, principal state policy associate with the Guttmacher Institute. “In 2020, it was about 1 in 10.”
The study counted abortions provided within the formal health care system. It’s the first to comprehensively analyze how the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, has begun to reshape interstate abortion travel.
Since the court’s ruling, 14 states have banned abortion in nearly all cases. An additional seven have restricted abortion earlier in pregnancy than would have been permitted under Roe.
That sent patients across state lines in droves, often to places like Illinois and New Mexico that have enacted “shield laws” to explicitly protect abortion patients from prosecution in other states.
But states like Kansas, North Carolina and Florida — where abortion remains legal, but restricted and a target of persistent legal attacks — also continue to field an influx of patients. In Kansas, abortion remains legal thanks to a 2022 vote that guaranteed the right to an abortion until the 22nd week of pregnancy. Several Kansas restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period, are on hold due to ongoing litigation.
“Distance and the amount of time it takes to travel is always going to be a really important factor for patients as they’re considering where they can get care,” Forouzan said.
Kansas borders Missouri and Oklahoma, which both have near-total abortion bans, and is close to other states with bans, like Texas and Arkansas. Wichita, in particular, is the nearest place to get an abortion for a region that is home to more than 1.8 million women of reproductive age, stretching as far south as Houston.
The state’s clinics have been inundated. Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates three Kansas clinics, has previously reported only having capacity to see 10% to 15% of people who request appointments.
TITLE: Abortion Clinic Closures, Provider Exits Beset States Post-Dobbs
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/abortion-clinic-closures-provider-exits-beset-states-post-dobbs
EXCERPT: As abortion clinics close, policy analysts and reproductive health-care groups warn state bans and other restrictions are exacerbating insurance and security costs that have long plagued abortion providers, leaving a vastly uneven distribution of reproductive health care across the country.
At least 66 clinics across 15 states stopped offering abortions within 100 days of the June 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Updated data on the issue are limited, and don’t provide a clear picture of the total number of clinics that have either stopped offering abortion or completely closed more than a year later.
“Anytime a clinic closes, it’s a real loss for the community,” said Melissa Fowler, chief program officer for the National Abortion Federation, which represents US abortion providers.
“Some have closed completely, some have pivoted to providing other services and are still open, and some have had to close their clinics but have been able to reopen in another state where abortion has remained legal,” Fowler said.
While abortion is legal in Wyoming until the point of fetal viability—roughly 24 weeks—state bans on the procedure and abortion medication are currently tied up in a court battle. On top of this, patients from surrounding states like Idaho and South Dakota that have near-total bans have traveled to Wyoming to receive abortion care.
For patients, “that adds time and cost and potentially delays when there’s no clinic serving in a very large territory,” said Usha Ranji, associate director for women’s health policy at KFF.
Each of the four Jackson clinic OB-GYNs are planning to continue practicing in the community, according to their letter to patients. It’s unclear whether they will offer abortion services at their new practice locations.
Jackson providers and other clinic staff didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.
Wellspring, which opened earlier this year after an arson attack in 2022 delayed its start date, is preparing for a potential influx of new patients to its facility by expanding telehealth services, clinic spokesperson Lauren Rankin said in an interview. In addition to providing procedural and medication abortion, the clinic also offers services like family planning and emergency contraception.
But the cost of remaining open is a concern, Rankin said, since the clinic is involved in the lawsuit challenging abortion bans currently on hold in the state. Giovannina Anthony, one of the providers in Jackson, is also a plaintiff in the case, Johnson v. State of Wyoming, which is pending in the District Court of Teton County in Wyoming’s Ninth Judicial Circuit.
On Dec. 14, Wyoming state district court Judge Melissa Owens will hear oral arguments on whether to issue a summary judgment on the bans. The abortion providers argue Owens should permanently strike the bans down, while state officials say the laws comply with the state’s constitution.
If Owens rules in favor of the bans, the providers plan to appeal and “exhaust every legal avenue we can to keep abortion legal in the state,” Rankin said.
Nevertheless, Wellspring is “dedicated to ensuring that we can remain open and provide the care that people need as long as we can,” Rankin said.
Clinics in Wyoming and other states across the country have long faced elevated operating costs and insurance coverage restrictions, making it difficult for many to stay afloat, Fowler said.
Before the Dobbs decision, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2017 projected that by 2050, there could be a shortage of 22,000 OB-GYNs across the country, with a disproportionate impact on rural areas.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, abortion providers, like other health professionals, had to adjust to a new normal of providing care. On top of that, “abortion providers also have to deal with the very real security concerns that, unfortunately, come along because of the work that they do,” Fowler said.
“They have to think about the costs related to that security from the very start, because they are so often harassed and targeted by anti-abortion individuals and groups,” Fowler said. In May, NAF reported spikes between 2021 and 2022 in incidents of stalking, burglary, arson, and other violence against abortion providers and clinics.