Planned Parenthood abortion clinics in Iowa are reportedly seeing an influx of out-of-state patients seeking an abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Local outlet KCRG reported this week that the clinics are seeing patients from neighboring states like Missouri and Nebraska but also as far as Texas and Louisiana.
Sheena Dooley with Planned Parenthood North Central States told KCRG that the clinics are experiencing a shortage of workers, but they are “more dedicated than ever to providing abortion care and reproductive health care to the patients we’re seeing.”
Dooley added that the new abortion trigger laws are “confusing” for patients and that the clinics are providing “patient navigators” to help women find nearby clinics, transportation for an abortion and financial help to pay for an abortion.
After Roe fell, Planned Parenthood’s CEO Alexis McGill Johnson outlined the organization’s next steps to continue providing abortions in an interview with The Guardian. The first priority she noted was to help women seeking an abortion to cross state lines to obtain the procedure.
“Our work right now is to maximize the care that we can in the states that we can, and also take this moment as an opportunity to maximize mobilization,” she told The Guardian. In the meantime, she explained that Planned Parenthood is creating “logistics centers” and other resources so there is capacity for out-of-state patients at “surge sites.”
“Patient ‘navigators’ will connect women to charities to help pay for both abortions and the costs of a long journey: gas, airfare and hotel stays. McGill Johnson’s hope is, eventually, to help build out a kind of online travel agency to access abortion,” The Guardian noted.
Pro-abortion Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) said in recent months that abortion giant Planned Parenthood should create outposts on federal lands in National Parks to offer women abortions. In addition, Warren said that she wants to shut down pro-life pregnancy centers.
Additionally, Planned Parenthood ceased providing abortions in Ohio after the Supreme Court ruling. This came after the organization also stopped providing abortions in both South Dakota and Wisconsin.
A new analysis published last month by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute found that Planned Parenthood abortion clinics are outnumbered 14 to 1 by thousands of community-based health care providers and pregnancy centers that do not rely on abortion for revenue.
“Planned Parenthood might be favored by the media and political elite, but the reality is that women are offered more options and real choices through community-based care providers,” CLI Deputy Director Genevieve Plaster, who authored the study, said in a statement.
“Our research found that Planned Parenthood facilities are outnumbered 14 to 1 by comprehensive, federally-funded health clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers, which receive a majority of their funding from the community and are better equipped to provide pregnant women with holistic care when faced with difficult circumstances,” she added. “FQHCs, which unlike Planned Parenthood are not dependent on abortion profits, continue making comprehensive medical care available to the very women pro-abortion politicians claim to support.”
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