We can't even relocate to expand, should we need to, without having to apply for a new license, which would not be forthcoming, I assure you. However, in Louisiana, it's against the law to provide any type of funding, Medicaid or otherwise, to clinics that provide abortion care. How is that cost going to be covered? Most of the patients that come to us would qualify for Medicaid because of their income. Because we are dealing with some of the poorest of the poor, there would be issues with, say, if we were to attempt to provide routine GYN care. You have to understand - none of the clinics that provide abortion care in Louisiana offer any other type of care. Should Roe be reversed, we would cease to exist – all three clinics in Louisiana. Pittman: There is no possibility of scaling up. Kathaleen in Louisiana, are you making plans to scale up your clinic, or are you kind of taking a wait-and-see approach because of the pending restrictions that Louisiana's legislature might pass soon? We've seen almost double the number of protesters, and a lot more anger and really angry, mean words towards patients and staff entering the building.Īn anti-abortion protester walks past as abortion-rights activists participate in a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on Saturday. We were also getting calls from - luckily from supporters, saying, what can we do? How can we help? Who can we fund? What funds can we help? What patient support organizations should we turn our attention to? And unfortunately, we also had a very strong protester presence outside of our office for the next several days. So I can't even imagine the amount of confusion that's going to happen and concern when the real decision comes down. There was a lot of confusion around what access and care was available just the next morning after the leak of a draft. King: We had patients immediately calling, asking were we canceling their appointment because they thought abortion was now illegal in the country. Tell me about who's calling and what they're saying to you. I imagine you've been getting a lot of phone calls in the last few days. But no one will be ready for the number of patients that can't access care if the decision from the Supreme Court is anything like the draft that's come out. We have the capacity to expand pretty quickly hours and appointments, and have been able to even though we've seen influxes of patients on and off from surrounding states. And to be prepared to even be able to see a small portion of the patients that will need access out of their own states, we've had to add staff. So we've actually been preparing for several years. 20 years later, Casey paved the way for restrictions Wade and the future of reproductive rights in America Roe established abortion rights. And pretty much every other state that borders Illinois will immediately or, over this next several months after a Supreme Court decision, will have significant restrictions on abortion if not a complete ban on abortion. And we have watched over two years as Missouri has restricted abortion so much that there are just a couple hundred abortions happening in Missouri right now where there used, you know, to be over 5- to 6,000 at least per year.Īnd so we are extremely worried about the Supreme Court decision that the same thing is going to happen in more states around us.
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King: About 60% of our patients are from Missouri.
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How is your clinic preparing for this possible outcome? Illinois is surrounded by states that have trigger laws, meaning automatic bans would go into effect if Roe is overturned. Erin King, your clinic is in Granite City, Ill., just about 10 minutes from the Missouri border, where abortion access has already been quite restricted.
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"And gratitude that, unlike many other moments that had been quite similar to this one in this one, we got to actually some of us be together."ĭr. "It was a combination of being feeling stunned and mad and also a sense of resignation and acceptance that this is something that we knew was coming for a long time," Schalit said. Just how the moment felt is hard to capture, according to Odile Schalit, the director of the Brigid Alliance, a group that helps women connect with abortion services.
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Wade was leaked this week, many abortion providers and advocates had just attended the National Abortion Federation conference. When the draft opinion signaling the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, protesters on both sides of the abortion debate continue to demonstrate in front of the building which has been fortified by a temporary fence. Less than a week since the leaked draft of the Court's potential decision to overturn Roe v. An abortion-rights protester holds up a sign during a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on Saturday in Washington, D.C.