Women living in Midwestern states increasingly are traveling to Illinois to access abortion care, driven by antiabortion-rights laws in their home states, Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare reports.
Background
According to Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare, states neighboring Illinois, for example Indiana, Missouri and Wisconsin, have some of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country.
Indiana earlier this year passed a law (HEA 1337) banning abortions sought because of the race or sex of a fetus or a disability diagnosis. A federal judge has since blocked the law.
According to Patti Stauffer, vice president of policy for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Indiana currently has only six physician practices that may legally provide abortion care, roughly half the number open before 2010. Stauffer noted that the lack of access to abortion care in the state, including how some women must travel several hours within the state to reach a clinic, poses "barriers women have to navigate."
Meanwhile, Missouri requires a woman to receive biased counseling and wait 72 hours before obtaining an abortion.
Women increasingly travel out of state for care
According to Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare, abortion providers in Illinois have reported an increase in out-of-state women coming into Illinois to access care.
For example, Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPI) saw a 20 percent increase in overall medical visits in 2015. PPI reported that women from Indiana accounted for the most individual patients from another state. According to PPI, the percentage of Indiana women visiting the organization's clinics to obtain abortion care increased from 44 percent in 2015 to 57 percent in 2016.
PPI experienced increased use of all its services, including contraception, testing for sexually transmitted infections and abortion care. The organization has had to update clinics, hire more providers and extend clinic hours to meet the growing demand, Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare reports.
Linda Diamond Shapiro, interim CEO of PPI, said, "People who come in from out of state, they are welcome here." However, she noted, "I can really say we would be thrilled if we could put ourselves out of business because other states got better laws."
Separately, Allison Cowett -- associate medical director at Family Planning Associates, a private abortion clinic -- also reported an increase in out-of-state patients. "When we talk to patients about why they're here as opposed to being in their own state, the most common responses are [mandatory delays]," she said.
Out-of-state travel likely to continue
Out-of-state travel to access abortion care likely will continue despite a recent Supreme Court decision striking down two contested provisions in Texas' omnibus antiabortion-rights law (HB 2), Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare reports.
Noting that many clinics have been closed under harsh state restrictions, Elizabeth Nash, senior state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, said, "I do think some restrictions will fall, but it's also just incredibly difficult to open a clinic" (Schorsch, Crain's Chicago Business/Modern Healthcare, 7/5).
