Wait for It, Wait for It, Even When It’s Legal

It might appear obvious to an economics student looking supply at the law of supply and demand, but for someone who believes in a woman’s right to control her own body and exercise reproductive freedom, it’s beginning to look like a disaster. Even as voters in red states ratify constitutional amendments, their geriatric and fundamentalist state legislators, governors and local district attorneys, and state attorneys general are still throwing obstacles in the path of clinics and doctors who offer abortion services legally. It may be as simple as denying or delaying building permits or harassing those offering the service. Or attempting to reach into other states to arrest doctors and clinic who legally offer that service if they provide abortions to the resident of a state that bans them. Some simply arrest the patients who got the abortion when they return.

Others have gone on to challenge this popular initiative in court, despite the fact that their state constitution was amended. US Senator Tommy Tuberville (MAGA R-Alabama) used his position to hold up Senate confirmations of military nominations in protest of the Defense Department's policy that allows service members stationed in anti-abortion states to to be reimbursed for travel costs related to getting abortions where such procedures were available,He held out for 10 months. Rightwing religious fundamentalist House Speaker Mike Johnson (MAGA R-Louisiana) is still trying to figure out how to get federal legislation passed to force a national abortion ban.

And then this scenario: “A Texas judge granted [Kate] Cox, a pregnant 31-year-old mother of two, permission to get an abortion, as her fetus has a fatal trisomy 18 genetic defect, also known as Edwards' syndrome. Most babies with the defect will die before birth or shortly afterward. Texas Supreme Court ruled on Friday [12/8] in an order that it was temporarily staying the lower court's decision, halting Cox from legally getting the medical procedure in Texas.” Newsweek, December 11th. By the time the Texas Supreme Court ruled against her later on the 11th, Cox had already left the state to get the procedure where it was still legal.

But back to economic basics. As laws in some states ban abortions, those who can, as illustrated above, travel to other states to obtain the medical procedure… but with the reduction in the number of places where abortion can be secured, the rise of abortion requests in states where that remains legal often exceed the capacity of local clinics. Woman often have to wait – while paying for local accommodations – sometimes for weeks. That waiting alone causes its own problems as their fetuses grow into babies-in-waiting. With about half the states banning or severely restricting abortions, the pressure on the remaining states has become problematical. Supply and demand.

Laura Unger, writing for the December 12th Associated Press, presents the issues: “A woman whose fetus was unlikely to survive called more than a dozen abortion clinics before finding one that would take her, only to be put on weeks-long waiting lists. A teen waited seven weeks for an abortion because it took her mother that long to get her an appointment. Others seeking the procedure faced waits because they struggled to travel hundreds of miles for care.

“Such obstacles have grown more common since Roe vs. Wade was overturned in June 2022, doctors and researchers say, causing delays that can lead to abortions that are more complex, costly and in some cases riskier — especially as pregnancies get further along…

“At various points since the decision on Roe, waits in several states stretched for two or three weeks, and some clinics had no available appointments, according to results of a periodic survey spearheaded by Middlebury College economics professor Caitlin Myers and recently provided to the Associated Press. Doctors and researchers say even as wait times have lessened, people still encounter other challenges, such as planning and paying for travel, taking time off work and finding child care… ‘All of those things can contribute to delays, and then it kind of becomes like this vicious circle,’ said Dr. Daniel Grossman, an OB-GYN at UC San Francisco, who was co-author of a research report this year that compiled anecdotes from healthcare providers after Roe was overturned.

“People may miss the window for medication abortions, which are not generally offered past 10 to 11 weeks of gestation. A dwindling number of clinics provide abortions as people move through the second trimester, which begins at 13 or 14 weeks. Costs change, too, from up to $800 in the first trimester to $2,000 or more in the second trimester… ‘While abortion is safe at all points in pregnancy,’ with an overall complication rate of 2%, it ‘does get more complicated as the pregnancy continues,’ said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

“At least 66 clinics in 15 states stopped providing abortions in the 100 days after Roe was overturned, according to an analysis last year by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

“The necessity for people to travel out of state is at the root of abortion delays. Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region’s health center in Fairview Heights, Ill., saw a 715% increase in patients from outside Illinois or Missouri in the year after Roe’s overturn.

“The ongoing Myers Abortion Appointment Availability Survey called more than 700 facilities across the United States. Its latest survey, conducted in September, found that 11 states had median appointment wait times of more than five business days and four states had waits of at least eight business days, not counting weekends or holidays. The longest wait was in Iowa: 12 business days.

“A year earlier, seven states had waits between 12 and 15 business days. In the report from Grossman’s team, a healthcare worker described how it took one mom seven weeks to get an appointment for her pregnant teen, who was about 17 weeks along by then.” It does seem that just being a normal woman is an inconvenient truth for half the states in this nation.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as local votes and national polls have sustained repeatedly, the Supreme Court reversal of Roe vs Wade represents the oppression of the vast majority women (and men) across the land by a religious minority.