More out-of-state patients seeking abortion care in Pennsylvania, providers say

During a panel discussion Tuesday in western Pennsylvania, U.S. Congressman Chris Deluzio, D-17th District, said Ohio voters’ rejection of Issue 1 shows where most voters stand on abortion rights. 

“The majority in this country wants to see abortion rights protected, not banned,” Deluzio said. “Just a few days ago, voters once again handily defeated an effort to further restrict abortion, this time in Ohio.”

Deluzio was joined by reproductive health care providers in western Pennsylvania to discuss the current state of access to care and the challenges that clinics and professionals face. 

The Ohio ballot measure would have raised the majority threshold needed for constitutional changes just months before voters are slated to vote on whether or not to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution. 

Ohio’s Issue 1 goes down to defeat

Deluzio called the U.S. Supreme Court “out-of-step with most of the American people” for its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years as settled law. 

Just months after the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision, an August 2022 survey conducted by Franklin & Marshall College found that nearly nine in ten registered Pennsylvania voters believe abortion should be legal under certain circumstances (52%) or any circumstance (37%).

Providers told lawmakers that since the. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs. V. Jackson Health Center ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, western Pennsylvania abortion providers have seen a “sharp increase in out-of-state patients seeking care.”

“Pre-Dobbs, approximately 16% of our patients were from out-of-state, primarily from our directly surrounding neighbors,” Sydney Etheredge, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, said during the panel discussion with Deluzio. “Now, in the post-Dobbs era, a quarter of our patients are traveling from 19 different states. These states are well beyond our region’s borders and as far west as Texas and as far south as Florida.”

With just 18 abortion providers serving Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million residents across its 67 counties, Etheredge said the influx of out–of–state patients has strained the clinic’s staff and its resources. 

“Even with the challenges of travel and other barriers that can be put on patients, it is critically important that abortion remain accessible here in Pennsylvania,” Etheredge said. “Not just for those here in the Commonwealth, but those coming from out-of-state.”

While abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, Etheredge called lawmakers’ attention to “an overly legislative medical infrastructure” that she said works “against patient needs” by creating barriers such as a 24-hour waiting period and pre-procedure lab work. 

Dr. Amy Collins, medical director of Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, said Tuesday that the year since Dobbs has been “eye-opening” in terms of access to care. 

“We are a fairly small clinic, you know, we don’t we’re not a large health system. We doubled the number of appointments and worked for 12 to 13 hours a day just to be able to get folks in and to get them the care that they needed,” Collins said. “You know, for us, we never had a patient waiting two weeks before, but we truly saw in that moment how important access is and what happens when access goes away.”

Collins noted that the demands on the clinic have settled a bit in the 14 months since the Dobbs decision, but that she and other providers are constantly “on edge,” and “waiting for the next shoe” to drop. 

“It’s the whole piece about just being a doctor under this burden of legislation and waiting for something to happen and change, and that is difficult,” Collins said. 

Since the Dobbs decision, some Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed bills to make accessing care easier for patients and providers. State Sens. Amanda Cappelletti, D-Delaware, and Judith Schwank, D-Berks, recently proposed a package of bills to ensure protections for reproductive care, such as protecting patient information and prohibiting Pennsylvania courts from cooperating with out-of-state civil and criminal cases involving abortion.

Pa. lawmakers introduce Abortion Protections Package, proposing safeguards for patients, providers

State Rep. Arvind Venkat, D-Allegheny, is also a medical doctor. He detailed his experience as an emergency physician, caring for a patient who nearly died from an infection due to a back-alley abortion. 

“She was a woman who did not speak English, very likely was not aware at the time that abortion rights were protected in the United States. She had gone to some unlicensed unsanitary provider and came in with overwhelming bleeding, with an overwhelming infection, and only thanks to an extraordinary team of medical professionals, was she able to survive,” Venkat said. “That’s not something I should have ever seen in my career.”

Venkat said that Pennsylvania is “fortunate to have a government that is protecting abortion rights,” in direct contrast to the 21 states where abortion care has either been banned or made more restrictive than the previous standard set by Roe v. Wade. 

Citing the Ohio Issue 1 vote earlier this month, Venkat accused Republican lawmakers of “trying to change the rules” of democracy. 

“What we’re now seeing from our Republican colleagues are attempts to change the rules when it comes to democracy when they don’t like the results that they’re seeing,” Venkat said. “It goes to what type of country we’re going to be and what type of democracy we’re going to have.”