Minnesota braces for influx of out-of-state abortion patients

[iemanja]

Minnesota physicians and organizations that help women access abortions are bracing for a spike in demand, days after Texas enacted a law considered the most restrictive abortion ban since Roe v. Wade.

The law prohibits abortions as early as six weeks — before some women know they're pregnant — and is already pushing people in Texas and surrounding states to seek abortions elsewhere. Destinations include Minnesota, where abortion access is constitutionally protected and less restrictive than many states. Meanwhile, in neighboring North Dakota, lawmakers on Thursday signaled that they plan to introduce their own version of the Texas law.

Though reproductive health advocates in Minnesota were anticipating a major challenge to Roe v. Wade, many expected it would come next year, when the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, said Megumi Rierson, communications manager for Our Justice, a Twin Cities-based organization that helps pay for abortions. The court's decision early Thursday not to block the Texas law changed that calculus.

"Providers and advocates were all preparing for an increase in requests, but we thought that we had a lot longer to develop some infrastructure," she said. "And we don't, because now it's here."

https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-braces-for-influx-of-out-of-state-abortion-patients/600093418/

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. Even though it's "less restrictive" than a lot of states, Minnesota has quite a few terrible

abortion restrictions that we need to end, especially if we'll be serving people from other states (which we do routinely). Some of those restrictions include the extra "counseling" appointment, notifying both parents of a minor, and mandating the burial or cremation of remains.

https://unrestrictmn.org/minnesota-abortion-laws/

[dflprincess]

7. And there are only 8 clinics that provide abortion services in Minnesota

Six in the Minneapolis/St Paul area, 1 in Rochester, and 1 in Duluth. The clinic in Duluth refers to itself as "the only provicer in Northern Minnesota, Northern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan" so I imagine that is already pretty busy.

There is a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Sioux Falls, SD but it has to fly a doctor in once a month from Minneapolis (and it is the only clinic in South Dakota) so it can be of very little help to women in SD or western Minnesota and often advises them to go to another state.

I would hope that, given that most abortions are preformed early, there may be more doctors who will prescribe the "abortion pill" but don't advertise it because of the crazies.

[CanonRay]

2. Just a question; Could a Native American tribe set up an abortion facility

for instance in Oklahoma on Tribal land just outside the Texas Border? Wonder if that would be legal/feasible and if there would be any Tribe willing to do so.

[in2herbs]

4. A few years back I posed this question in a letter I sent to every pro-choice group I knew of. Got

no response from any of them.

[Irish_Dem]

5. NAs are very sensitive to their history of forced abortions and sterilization by whites.

I am not sure they want to be seen as abortion sites.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Maybe a better question would be whether they want one or not.

White people relying on BIPOC to save them is a bad habit white people need to break.

[PortTack]

3. Illinois has already seen an influx of patients..surrounded by crazy red states