IPR Seminar: Carole Joffe, University of California - Davis
The impact of abortion restrictions
Since the substantial gains of Republicans in state level elections, a process whichstarted in 2010, there has been an unprecedented number of abortion restrictions passed by state legislatures—nearly 300 since 2010. The most significant of these restrictions—Ambulatory Surgery Center requirements, physician admitting privileges, and in Ohio, transfer agreements—have resulted thus far in approximately 90-100 clinics being forced to close, and considerably more will possibly close depending on the outcome of cases expected to come before the Supreme Court. But what of the clinics in “red” states that have managed to stay open during this hostile period? My talk will draw on a series of interviews and focus groups I have done with abortion providers in a number of heavily regulated states—“abortion provider” in this instance referring not primarily to the clinicians who perform the abortion, but to clinic managers and front line staff. I will address such matters as relations with health department officials who perform unannounced inspections and the impact of such inspections on both staff and patients; the efforts of senior staff to sustain the morale of confused and demoralized junior staff; and most consequentially, in my view, the threats the recent regulations pose to a long-established traditions of “woman-centered” care in independent abortion clinics.
