Twice as many independent abortion clinics have closed so far in 2022 compared to the year before
Not every abortion clinic is a Planned Parenthood affiliate. We may tend to forget that. Many are Independents and many of them are affiliated with the Abortion Care Network.
USA Today’s Christine Fernando’s writes that “Independent abortion care providers, also called ‘indies,’ are community-based reproductive health clinics not affiliated with a national organization like Planned Parenthood, said ACN Deputy Director Erin Grant.”
For obvious reasons, we’ve written about them on multiple occasions.
Our treatment is, I believe, fair. By contrast, the way the “Mainstream Media” treats their annual reports is with something akin to reverence. And always—Always—their language borders on the apocalyptic because that’s the manner in which the Abortion Care Network always writes.
For example, USA Today’s headline is “Independent abortion clinics are ‘disappearing from communities’ after the end of Roe v. Wade.” Christine Fernando’s lead is “Twice as many independent abortion clinics have closed so far in 2022 compared to the year before as facilities shuttered in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision this year to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to an association for independent abortion care providers.”
“As of November, 42 independent clinics had closed this year, most of which were in the South and Midwest,” Kelsey Butler reports for Bloomberg Law. “That’s up from 20 in 2021, according to a Tuesday report from Abortion Care Network, an association of community-based abortion providers.”
Fernando writes, “While indies represent about 24% of all facilities offering abortion care nationwide, they provide 55% of all abortion procedures, according to the report.”
Times are bleak. “Over the last decade, abortion clinics have been closing at an alarming rate,” [ACN Deputy Director Erin] Grant said. “There’s no form of health care that should be impacted this deeply and be disappearing from communities at this rate. It’s just not acceptable.”
Although not mentioned in the news accounts (what a surprise), Indies fulfill a huge role in the abortion ecosystem. As Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon, director of education & research for NRLC, has written, “One of its ‘bragging’ points is that independent abortion clinics, not Planned Parenthood, perform most of the late term abortions and over 80% of the abortions after 22 weeks.”
Another example of “bragging points” in the report is “About 80% of indies also offer medication abortions, which advocates say will be especially key to abortion access in a post-Roe world. In comparison, Planned Parenthood offers medication abortion care in addition to in-clinic care at only 43% of its clinics, according to the report.”
A subhead in Fernando’s story is “How quickly are ‘indies’ closing and why?” She writes
When taking openings of new clinics into consideration, the number of brick-and-mortar independent clinics has dropped by 35% since 2012, from 510 in 2012 to 333 in 2022, according to the report.
While there are several reasons for the closures, the report says “overturning of Roe v. Wade was the clearest and most immediate.”
Plus, “Indies lack the institutional support, visibility, name recognition, or fundraising capacity of national health centers and hospitals, making it especially difficult for them to secure the resources needed to keep their doors open,” according to the report.
The report itself bemoans a development pro-lifers fervently hope continues to be a model to other states:
In June of 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in their ruling on the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case. As a direct result, there are fourteen states with no abortion-providing clinics as of November 2022. Since Abortion Care Network began tracking independent clinic status in 2015, there has never been a state without at least one clinic
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
