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Forcing women to travel for abortions has increased costs by 41 percent

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Illinois

While the long-term consequences of the end of Roe v. Wade could take years to tally, one outcome is already clear: a year after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion, the costs associated with ending a pregnancy have soared.

The Brigid Alliance, which provides logistical support to people seeking abortion care, estimates that the average cost of traveling for care has increased 41% since the first half of 2022, when it was just over $1,000. The average spend for patients that need to fly has jumped 17% to $994; while a hotel stay — usually three nights — is up 29% to $919, according to the group.

Though inflation accounts for some of the increase, state-by-state abortion bans mean people live an average of 275 miles further from a clinic than they did a year ago, according to Caitlin Myers, a researcher at Middlebury College. In Texas, the average drive to a clinic increased to 499 miles in March from 43 miles a year earlier, adding up to about $131 extra in gas for a round trip.

At another logistical abortion fund — the Midwest Access Coalition — the average cost per patient covered is now about $1,200, roughly double what it was before the ruling, said Marisa Falcon, executive director of Apiary for Practical Support, a network of groups that provide logistical assistance for abortion care.

* WGEM…

Planned Parenthood plans to close three Iowa locations but provide more services at others in response to increasing demands for abortions, staff shortages and increasing costs.

The consolidation at Planned Parenthood North Central States, which provides abortions in Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, comes as states that provide abortions have seen a sharp increase in people coming from states that have prohibited or sharply restricted the procedure, The Des Moines Register reported.

Leaders of the organization say they’ve performed 9% more abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. […]

Abortion is currently legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. On June 16, the Iowa Supreme Court declined to reinstate a law that would have banned abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant.

Iowa Republicans are widely expected to attempt to pass a new law during the next session to further restrict abortion.

* St. Louis Public Radio…

Since the high court’s ruling last June, clinics in the Metro East that offer abortions have become a destination for thousands of patients seeking the procedure. In the months after the decision, a report found the number of abortions performed in Illinois increased more than 30%.

Planned Parenthood’s Fairview Heights clinic has increased its workforce and hours to try to keep up with increased patient loads. St. Louis Public Radio’s Sarah Fentem asked Kawanna Shannon, Planned Parenthood’s director of patient access, and Dr. Colleen McNicholas, its chief medical officer, what the organization’s Fairview Heights clinic has seen in the past year. […]

Colleen McNicholas: What we have seen over the last year, especially as additional states have gone down, is that there is still far more demand than our health center, HOPE Clinic [in Granite City] or even the new clinic, Choices, in Carbondale, can accommodate.

Kawanna Shannon: There has been a surge after Roe, and it’s actually constantly increasing. So we haven’t seen any type of slowdown of patients coming; we’ve only seen an increase due to more restrictions in others in other states and more bans.

* Superior Telegram…

One year after the Dobbs decision, things look quite a bit different for Wisconsinites on both sides of the issue. As legal abortions have ceased in the state, patients, providers and protesters are making the trip to Illinois, Minnesota and other states where it’s still legal.

Shortly after Ellingson arrived at the Waukegan clinic on a recent Wednesday, a small group of protesters began to set up on the sidewalk between the busy road and the clinic. They were from Wisconsin, too.

“We came from Wisconsin to Illinois to try to reach out to women who are abortion-minded,” said Anne Franczek of Milwaukee. She’s been protesting at abortion clinics for close to 40 years, and now comes to Waukegan twice a week with the Christian anti-abortion group Tarry One Hour.

The Waukegan clinic opened in 2020, with an eye on serving patients from nearby Wisconsin. For Franczek, that’s part of the reason she makes the trip twice each week.

“If they’re going to be that strategic, why shouldn’t we be strategic?” she said.

* Related…

Reuters | After Roe v. Wade fell, this father-daughter duo left Texas to go on providing abortions:

* RFT | Illinois Planned Parenthood Sees Surge of Patients After Abortion Bans: In the past 11 months, the Planned Parenthood facility in Fairview Heights has handled: A 57 percent increase in procedural abortions, with abortions for patients 14 weeks or more into their pregnancy jumping by 32 percent. A 97 percent increase in vasectomy appointments.

* Jezebel | Woman Sues Anti-Abortion ‘Pregnancy Center’ After Her Ectopic Pregnancy Ruptured: The woman, known as Jane Doe, filed a class action lawsuit on Thursday in Worcester Superior Court alleging that Clearway Clinic in Worcester didn’t follow standard medical care. The suit also claims that Clearway engages in deceptive practices to lure in people seeking the full range of pregnancy options, when its actual purpose is just to dissuade them from getting abortions.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 2:20 pm

Comments

Republicans are dangerous to women’s health… any poor woman looking for medical assistance now needs to be prepared to pay more because Republicans have a need to force women to carry pregnancies to term, even if medically challenging or worse… because a woman can’t have control of her own body.

There is no accident here.

Making it costly is a feature.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 2:33 pm
How can responsible corporations, especially those that are publicly traded, possibly consider keeping their headquarters in, or (like Caterpillar) moving them to, states that are denying reproductive freedom and endangering the lives of those who develop such serious complications during pregnancy that they require an abortion to avoid death or disability?

Same goes for remaining or relocating to states attacking LGBTQ citizens and children. Or immigrants.

If your employees are your most valuable assets than it’s a problem from an obligation-to-shareholder perspective to take actions that will impair recruitment and retention.

DCEO ought to send letters to the management and boards of companies with HQs or significant operations in anti-freedom states to highlight this as a serious governance issue for those companies and invite them to come to Illinois. Similarly, the Illinois State Board of Investment and other such investment managers might do the same.

Comment by Moe Berg Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 2:38 pm
While traveling to Milwaukee and back this weekend (a trip I make about once per month), I noticed many anti-abortion ads in Wisconsin I’d never seen before. They were clearly aimed at people going to Illinois.
A particularly cruel one, in my opinion, was one for people traveling back into Wisconsin that read, “Regret your abortion?”

Comment by Proud Papa Bear Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 2:47 pm
I think there are some serious staffing costs being overlooked from both the employer (as there are shortages, all costs increase, especially recruiting) and employees (they are relocating if they want to stay).

Comment by Lurker Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 2:48 pm
Free birth control is cheaper

Comment by Katlen Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:01 pm
Isabel, thanks for posting the Jezebel story. there are some truly cruel and clueless people out there who don’t know or don’t care about the actual condition of a woman and don’t help. terrifying. all of it.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:08 pm
Anything that makes abortion expensive and difficult is fine with me. Dangerous for women’s health? In far fewer instances than abortion is dangerous for the baby’s health. Birth control is widely available, effective, and low cost or free if you can’t pay.

Comment by Captain Obvious Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:16 pm
===birth control is===

Never have a family member, pregnant, faced with a pregnancy that once was safe but later was dangerous?

To be so naive…

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:25 pm
= Birth control is widely available, effective, and low cost or free if you can’t pay. =

Tell that to the 10-year-old whose father raped her.

Tell that to woman whose much-wanted child is dead in her womb.

Comment by JoanP Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:26 pm
===Anything that makes abortion expensive and difficult is fine with me.===

You are dangerous to women with that thinking.

Forcing pregnancy for your own feelings is a bit strange and medieval and purposely cruel, which you like.

Thanks for showing who are. Sincerely. This helps me going forward.

Oh…

===Birth control is widely available, effective, and low cost or free===

Now how about life saving abortions…

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:28 pm
that poor woman carrying an ectopic pregnancy until it ruptures is very, very dangerous. If they call themselves health care and didn’t do even the minimum to make sure the pregnancy was not ectopic they ought to sued into the afterlife and if the instition was as slapdash in its setup as they usually are, they ought to go after the officers too and anyone else they can.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 3:36 pm
There were pro-choice and Pride activists protesting at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception this past Sunday.

Comment by Anon Monday, Jun 26, 23 @ 7:10 pm