Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Demand Surges, Women Turned Away: Clinics Prepare For Post-Roe World
The 19th: Patients Sat In Abortion Clinic Waiting Rooms As Roe Fell. They All Had To Be Turned Away
Patients were in the lobby, waiting, the moment it became a post-Roe America. The staff at Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services Clinic in San Antonio had just received a call from their attorney: Abortion procedures in Texas would have to stop immediately. The dozen or so patients in the lobby Friday morning would have to be turned away. The clinic staff would have to be the ones to tell them. (Carrazana, 6/24)
The New Yorker: Roe’s Final Hours In One Of America’s Largest Abortion Clinics
At seven o’clock on Friday morning, Ivy turned on the lights of the Houston Women’s Clinic, the largest abortion provider in the state, where she has worked as a supervisor for nearly two decades. Since May, when the draft of a Supreme Court decision leaked, revealing its conservative majority’s intention to overturn Roe v. Wade, Ivy, who is fifty-six and asked to be identified only by a nickname, went to work each day knowing that it might be her last. But neither the likely end of a woman’s right to an abortion, nor Texas’s existing onerous regulations against it, had altered her brisk morning habits. Tucking her graying, hip-length hair into a bun and covering it with a black surgical cap, she sterilized all the syringes, counted the curettes one by one, and waited for her colleagues to trickle in. Only Ivy’s message to her patients had changed. Now every greeting had to come with a disclaimer. (Taladrid, 6/25)
The New York Times: The Final Days Of Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic
A young woman entered the parking lot of the only abortion clinic in Mississippi, her shoulders hunched. She was accompanied by an older woman and a stone-faced young man with a handgun on his hip. She appeared terrified. All around them, the noise was deafening. It was early Saturday morning, and a man with a powerful P.A. system was preaching about Jezebel being eaten by dogs. Dozens of evangelical Christians had come to pray. (Fausset, 6/26)
The Washington Post: A Women’s Clinic Run By Two Generations Of Women Braces For The Post-Roe Era
The flowers seemed innocent enough, but Jakaiser Jackson wasn’t taking any chances. The security guard at the Scotsdale Women’s Center in Michigan’s biggest city stopped the delivery before it could even reach the building’s outer vestibule. Abortion clinics like this one have long been a target for protests and violence, so Jackson and others are extra vigilant about who comes inside and even what packages are accepted. Protesters rarely show up armed, but they do harass employees and patients. (Bellware, 6/26)
Clinics prepare for a tidal wave of patients —
The 19th: Clinics In States Where You Can Get An Abortion Prepare For 'Wave Of Clients'
Early Friday, emails flooded Dr. Jen Kerns’ inbox. In the hours after Roe v. Wade was overturned, doctors and patients turned to providers in states where abortion is still legal, like Kerns, who performs abortions in San Francisco and Kansas, asking for appointments. These partnerships between providers were happening already as abortion access started to shrink across the country, but now the work has taken on a “slightly more frenzied tone to it, knowing that people are going to have to jump through multiple hoops in order to get out of their state to access care,” Kerns said. (Gerson and Carrazana, 6/25)
San Francisco Chronicle: Abortion Access In California Isn’t Equal Statewide. These Maps Show Where Clinics Are Concentrated
California is already home to nearly 20% of U.S. abortion clinics. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down Roe v. Wade, it’s likely that ensuing closures across the nation will mean the state becomes host to a third of U.S. clinics within months. But within California, abortion access is uneven. More than half of the state’s abortion clinics are concentrated in five counties, and 22 counties have no abortion clinics at all. These 22 counties are concentrated along the state’s eastern flank, spanning Modoc in the north to Inyo in the south. (Neilson, 6/25)
ABC News: Without Abortion, Pregnancy Aid Programs Face Surge In Demand
Maternity homes and crisis pregnancy resource centers – offering everything from housing support to free diapers -- are expecting a surge of demand in states enacting strict new bans on abortion. The Catholic Church is one of the leading backers of a national pregnancy aid network. ... Critics say the church is dangerously ill-equipped and unprepared. In the 13 states with trigger laws enacted to ban abortions after Roe was overturned, more than 103,000 were performed in 2020 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Dwyer, Herndon and Meneses, 6/25)
Insider: North Dakota Abortion Clinic Raised More Than $500,000 In Two Days
An abortion clinic based in North Dakota has raised more than $550,000 to fund its move in the two days since the Supreme Court's decision to roll back Roe v. Wade. The Red River Women's Clinic of Fargo, North Dakota, set up a GoFundMe to assist with a planned move to Moorhead, Minnesota. North Dakota is one of the at least 13 states that has a "trigger" law, which immediately bans abortions following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. (Dzhanova, 6/26)
Vandalism reported at pregnancy centers in Virginia and Colorado —
The Washington Post: Virginia Antiabortion Pregnancy Center Vandalized, Police Say
The Lynchburg Police Department is investigating a vandalism incident that occurred early Saturday morning at the antiabortion Blue Ridge Pregnancy Center in Lynchburg, Va. At 10:40 a.m. Saturday, police responding to a call at 3701 Old Forest Rd. found that the building had been spray-painted with graffiti and that multiple windows had been smashed. Security camera footage showed four masked individuals vandalizing the center, according to police. (Sanchez, 6/26)
AP: Police Investigating Fire At Colorado Pregnancy Center
A weekend fire at a Christian pregnancy center in north-central Colorado is being investigated as a possible arson, police in Longmont said. The fire at Life Choices was reported at 3:17 a.m. Saturday, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and said abortion laws would be decided by the states. (6/26)
