Posted on 05/06/2022 7:34:09 PM PDT by Morgana
As Coloradans await the final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the fate of Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates are preparing for what they consider an inevitable influx of patients from out of state.
According to data from the state health department, that uptick of abortion patients from outside of Colorado is already happening.
From 2017 to 2019, 11% of abortions in Colorado were performed on patients from out of state. In 2020, it went to 13% and was nearly 14% last year, according to the state health department. That accounts for 1,560 procedures out of the state’s total of 11,580 abortions in 2021.
Ultimately, how Colorado abortion providers will be affected by the court’s decision is a matter of numbers, geography and a patchwork of laws.
Take, for example, Texas, which is just a panhandle away from Colorado. In 2019, there were 57,275 reported abortions in that state, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a rate of 9.5 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44. In 2021, Texas passed a law banning abortion after six weeks.
Neta Meltzer with Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains said about 45 percent of Texans seeking abortion after that law was enacted went to Oklahoma to get them. This week, the governor of Oklahoma — where, in 2019, there were 4,995 abortions or 6.4 per 1,000 women ages 15-44 — signed a similar early pregnancy abortion ban.
“That's a staggering volume of patients to absorb, and now (Oklahoma) will no longer be an option for those patients,” Meltzer said. “We are already seeing Texas patients because Colorado is another one of the destinations that they go to to receive that care.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cpr.org ...
Those wanting abortions will have to “take a number and wait.”
“Ah Ms Jones. You need an abortion today but we are booked up solid. December of 2025 is the only opening we have so we will schedule it then.”
“But Doc, I need it now not in three years!”
“You should have thought about that before you got knocked up!”
The most popular bumper sticker in Colorado back in 1973 was..
DON’T CALIFORNICATE COLORADO!
Well it has been. Now they are working on New Mexico.
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