Christie Pitney is a certified nurse midwife who was working at a federally funded health center in California’s Central Valley when the pandemic struck. In those early months, several of her patients struggled to get abortions. Under normal circumstances, the closest abortion clinic is 45 minutes away, but during the pandemic, clinics around the country suffered staff shortages and canceled services. Patients were having trouble getting to clinics even when they were open. advertisement advertisement This is part of a series of articles on the business case for abortion access. See the full package here. “My patients and the population in that area, they don’t have reliable transportation. They are working six to seven days a week,” she says. “They have childcare needs and don’t have reliable income. Most of them are either working in a packing house or in the fields.” And that’s in California, one of the most accessible states to get an … [Read more...] about In a post-‘Roe’ world, abortion pills won’t be enough
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Insurance is one of the major barriers to abortion care in the U.S. That’s intentional
Erika Christensen was in her third trimester in May 2016, when doctors told her the fetus wasn’t swallowing, and her baby would likely not be able to breathe outside her body. advertisement advertisement They were also concerned for her health. Christensen had had brain surgery a year before, and going into natural labor was already a risk. The doctors agreed that the best course of care was to terminate the pregnancy. This is part of a series of articles on the business case for abortion access. See the full package here. Despite the risks, Christensen was past the point where abortion was legal in New York, as she was more than 24 weeks pregnant. She would have to travel to Colorado for a $10,000 procedure. On top of that, she discovered that—while she had “very good private insurance”—abortion care wasn’t covered out-of-network. “I didn’t know to ask for pre-authorization to reimburse myself,” she says. “And I am not sure it would have … [Read more...] about Insurance is one of the major barriers to abortion care in the U.S. That’s intentional