Abortion clinics move to skirt laws

Abortion providers in the United States are moving from states now subject to prohibitive laws and setting up in places where the procedure is still allowed.

The upheavals have been triggered by the Supreme Court's overturning last month of the Roe v. Wade ruling that had protected abortion rights across the nation.

Alan Braid, a high-profile abortion provider who defied Texas' so-called heartbeat act banning abortion after six weeks, is closing his clinics in Texas and Oklahoma where abortion became illegal following the court's ruling on June 24.

He said that he is opening new clinics in Illinois and New Mexico, selecting locations most accessible to women who can't obtain a legal abortion in their home states.

Braid performed abortions after the Texas heartbeat act went into effect last September and wrote about it openly, according to a report by The Washington Post. He hoped to be sued to test the constitutionality of the heartbeat law. Anti-abortion advocates didn't take the bait and left him alone.

However, the Supreme Court's decision triggered a 1925 Texas law that bans all abortions from the moment of conception. As a result, Braid is shutting his clinic in the city of San Antonio.

Now Texas women will have to travel far to get services from Braid. San Antonio is more than 1,000 kilometers from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and even farther from Carbondale, Illinois, where his two new clinics will be located.

Other doctors are also leaving Texas and other states that are severely restricting abortions.

Samuel Dickman, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, settled in San Antonio three years ago working for Planned Parenthood South Texas. He moved to Montana in May after Texas' hard line came in.

Dickman told Texas Monthly that he is disheartened at having to regularly turn vulnerable patients away, and the experience felt "like a never-ending tragedy".

Abortion is still legal in Montana. Surrounded by four states with abortion trigger bans, Dickman's services likely will be in demand in Montana.

"I'm looking forward to being able to practice medicine with less state interference," he said. "I'm not alone. Other providers like me have already left, or they're planning to."

However, it isn't clear if Dickman will last in Montana. While abortion is protected under a 1999 court decision, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte said he is in discussions with state legislative leaders about the next steps to enact a law to "protect life in Montana".

Staff flows

In Ohio, doctor Catherine Romanos plans to make regular drives to Michigan to conduct abortions beginning this month, she told The Wall Street Journal.

Romanos said she is applying for a medical license in Michigan and Illinois, where abortion is legal. In Ohio, she is turning away patients whose pregnancies have advanced past the stage allowed by state law and advising them to seek an abortion in other states.

Some states such as Kansas, Illinois, Colorado and New Mexico are surrounded by states banning the procedure and have emerged as central access points for people seeking an abortion from neighboring states. Many clinics have seen the demand for their service double after the Roe v. Wade decision.

Those clinics are scrambling to hire more staff to meet increasing demand from outside states. The Journal reported that the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center in Colorado has hired two medical assistants from Texas recently. Choices, an abortion clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, is opening a second location three hours away in Carbondale, Illinois. Another abortion provider is shifting its staff from Tennessee to Illinois.

Jessica Rubino, a doctor at Austin Women's Health Center, told Texas Monthly that she, like a few of her colleagues, is weighing whether to move to New Mexico.

She said that life inside her clinic has been marked by chaos and desperation for months since the Texas heartbeat act became effective.