Abortion clinic

An abortion clinic is a medical facility that provides abortions. Such clinics may be public medical centers, private medical practices or nonprofit organizations such as Planned Parenthood.

Statistics

Canada
  • There were 197 abortion providers in Canada in 2001.[1]
  • 34 of the 197 providers in Canada in 2001 were clinics and 167 were hospitals.[1]
  • The provinces with the most providers were Ontario (76 hospitals, 6 clinics), Quebec (30 hospitals, 19 clinics), and British Columbia (37 hospitals, 3 clinics) in 2001.[1]
  • The provinces and territories with the fewest providers were Prince Edward Island (none), Nunavut (one hospital), and Yukon (one hospital) in 2001.[1]

Netherlands
  • There were 14 abortion clinics in the Netherlands in 2019.[2][3]
  • In 2013, 92% of all pregnancy terminations were performed in these clinics; the other interventions were carried out by gynaecologists in hospitals.[4]:p. 10
  • In 2017, 30,523 women had their pregnancies terminated in the Netherlands; 11% of abortions were performed on women who travelled to the Netherlands for the treatment.[2]

United States
  • There were 1,671 abortion providers in the United States in 2014.[5]
  • 267 of the 1,671 abortion providers in the U.S. in 2014 were clinics at which the majority of patient visits were for abortions. [6]
  • As of 2014, the states with the most providers were California (512) and New York (218).[7]
  • As of 2014, the states that only had one provider include Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.[8]
  • 90% of all counties in the United States do not have a provider in 2014. [9]
  • Every state (and the District of Columbia) had at least one provider in 2014. [10]
  • 31% of metropolitan counties and 3% of non-metropolitan counties had a provider in 2005.[11]

Clinic access

Netherlands
An abortion clinic in Zwolle, Netherlands (2019)

Abortion was criminalised in the Netherlands in 1911; nonetheless, a demand for terminating pregnancies remained, and an illegal abortion market grew. In 1962, about 25,000 abortions were performed in the entire country, all of them illegal and unsafe. 70 amateur abortionists were sentenced that year.[12](12:27) Illegal abortions were mostly performed with very risky and dangerous methods, which led to serious infections and internal bleeding. About 20 to 30 women died of complications each year, while many others were disabled for life and resigned to wheelchairs.[12](10:28) In the late 1960s, the taboo on abortion was gradually broke in public discourse. More and more experts came to the point of view that abortions would happen anyway, whether or not the act was criminalised, and it was to conduct them safely for those women determined to end their pregnancy.[12](12:43) In the early 1970s, the first specialised abortion clinics emerged such as in Arnhem (Mildredhuis, 1971) and Heemstede (Bloemenhove Clinic, 1973).[12](16:01) By 1975, abortion clinic network Stimezo (an abbreviation of Stichting Medisch Verantwoorde Zwangerschapsonderbreking, "Medically Responsible Pregnancy Termination Foundation", set up in 1969) ran 9 clinics throughout the country.[13] The government tolerated these illegal clinics until 1976, when Minister of Justice Dries van Agt tried to close the Bloemenhove Clinic, which was promptly occupied by hundreds of pro-abortion activists from numerous women's rights organisations. After a two-week standoff, a judge ruled in favour of the clinic, and Van Agt had to back down from taking the clinic by force. It would take until 1984 when abortion was finally legalised after long-winded heated parliamentary debates, with high pressure from the pro and anti-abortion camps.[13]

United States

Between 2011 and 2016, 162 abortion clinics in the United States closed or stopped offering abortions due largely to legislative regulations enacted by Republican state lawmakers.[14] These bills, referred to as TRAP laws (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider) implement medically unnecessary restrictions for clinics that will be difficult or impossible for providers to meet, therefore forcing clinics to close under the guise of increasing the safety of the procedure.[15]

Access to abortions is extremely limited, particularly in rural and conservative areas. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 31% of women in rural areas traveled over 100 miles in order to receive an abortion while another 43% traveled between 50–100 miles.[16] These numbers are only increasing as more clinics are forced to close. Between 2011 and 2016 the number of abortion clinics in Texas dropped from 40 to 19[17] as a result of the state's House Bill 2, which was struck down by the Supreme Court in June, 2016.[18]

Anti-abortion protests
Operation Save America members protest in front of an abortion clinic in Jackson, Mississippi, during their 2006 National Event in that city.

Abortion clinics have frequently been the site of protests by anti-abortion activists. Protesters often engage in what is known as "sidewalk counseling", in which they warn people entering the clinic about alleged risks of abortion, attempt to offer alternatives to abortion or show pictures of fetuses.[19] In 1985, 85% of abortion providers were experiencing either picketing, clinic blockades or invasion of the facility,[20] with 19% of providers receiving bomb threats and 16% were picketed at their homes .[21] In 2000 82% of facilities received protests with 61% receiving 20 or more pickets. [22]

The 2007 film Juno contains an example of such protest. The protagonist enters a clinic with the purpose of procuring an abortion, but sees a fellow student protesting outside the clinic who tells her that the fetus "has fingernails".[23] This causes Juno to change her mind about having an abortion, and she leaves the clinic, with her friend calling out to her, "God appreciates your miracle."[24]

Another tactic in which protestors film or photograph patients entering the clinic utilizes the societal stigma surrounding abortion and attempts to expose or shame women who are seeking the procedure.[25] Anti-abortion activists have also attempted to access abortion clinic medical records by breaking into dumpsters, proposing state legislation that would require clinics to provide information regarding their patients to the government and hacking online databases containing confidential patient information.[26]

In some countries, a buffer zone is enforced to prevent protesters from standing within a certain distance of the clinic entrance.[27] In the United States these buffer zones have been the subject of many lawsuits and legislative actions on both statewide and national levels. In 2014 the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts bill that had legalized a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics in the state in 2007.[28]

Anti-abortion violence
Main article: Anti-abortion violence

Abortion clinics have frequently been subject to anti-abortion violence. The New York Times cites over one hundred clinic bombings and incidents of arson, over three hundred invasions, and over four hundred incidents of vandalism between 1978 and 1993,[29] and the National Abortion Federation, an organization of abortion providers, cites over 300 attempted or completed instances of bombing or arson, thousands of invasions and vandalism incidents, as well as other attacks, between 1977 and 2009.[30] According to the NAF, the first instance of arson at an abortion clinic took place in March 1976 in Oregon, and the first bombing was in Ohio in February 1978.[31] Some notable incidents are:

  • In 1993, Dr. David Gunn was shot and killed outside as he arrived at his clinic.
  • In 1993, Dr. George Tiller was shot in both arms by Shelley Shannon outside his clinic. Tiller would later be murdered in church by another opponent of abortion rights.
  • In 1994, Dr. John Britton, another doctor, and James Barrett, his escort, were shot and killed by Paul Jennings Hill as they arrived at a clinic. Barrett's wife June was also wounded.
  • In 1994, John Salvi shot and killed two abortion clinic receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, and wounded five other people.[32]
  • In 1998, a remote-controlled pipe bomb that Eric Robert Rudolph set outside a clinic killed security guard Robert Sanderson and maimed nurse Emily Lyons.
  • In 2001, Peter James Knight shot and killed a security guard, Steven Rogers, at the abortion clinic where Rogers worked.
  • In 2015, a shooting incident occurred at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colorado which resulted in three fatalities, including a police officer, and in multiple injuries to other clinic workers and patients.

In the United States, the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed in 1994 in response to acts of violence at clinics, which prohibits the use of force or obstruction to interfere with a person's attempt to obtain or provide reproductive health services, and the intentional damage of a reproductive health care facility such as an abortion clinic.

See also
  • Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health, once the largest freestanding abortion clinic in the world, opened in New York City after New York legalized abortion in 1970.
  • Planned Parenthood

References
  1. Eggertson L (March 2001). "Abortion services in Canada: a patchwork quilt with many holes". Canadian Medical Association Journal. 164 (6): 847–9. PMC 80888. PMID 11276554.
  2. "Abortuskliniek klaagt over anti-abortusdemonstranten". NOS (in Dutch). 19 March 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. Arnold Mandemaker (14 April 2019). "Yvonne uit Eindhoven werd belaagd door anti-abortus demonstranten". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  4. "Verantwoorde zorg in abortusklinieken, met ruimte voor verbetering" (PDF). Dutch Health Care Inspectorate (in Dutch). Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. August 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. Jones RK, Jerman J (March 2017). "Abortion incidence and service availability in the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  6. Jones, Rachel K.; Jerman, Jenna (2017). "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. ISSN 1931-2393. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  7. Jones, Rachel K.; Jerman, Jenna (2017). "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. ISSN 1931-2393. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  8. Jones, Rachel K.; Jerman, Jenna (2017). "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. ISSN 1931-2393. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  9. Jones, Rachel K.; Jerman, Jenna (2017). "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. ISSN 1931-2393. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  10. Jones, Rachel K.; Jerman, Jenna (2017). "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014". Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 49 (1): 17–27. doi:10.1363/psrh.12015. ISSN 1931-2393. PMC 5487028. PMID 28094905.
  11. Jones RK, Zolna MR, Henshaw SK, Finer LB (March 2008). "Abortion in the United States: incidence and access to services, 2005" (PDF). Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. 40 (1): 6–16. doi:10.1363/4000608. PMID 18318867.
  12. Paul Ruigrok, Karin van den Born en Mirjam Gulmans (29 March 2007). "Abortus". Andere Tijden. NTR en VPRO. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  13. "Achtergrond: Abortus in een historisch kader" (in Dutch). Stichting Fiom. Retrieved 7 June 2019.
  14. "Abortion Clinics Are Closing at a Record Pace". Bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  15. Smith, Jordan (5 February 2019). "Louisiana tests the new Supreme Court on abortion". The Intercept. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  16. "One-Third of U.S. Women Seeking Abortions Travel More Than 25 Miles to Access Services". Guttmacher Institute. 2013-07-26. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  17. Tribune, The Texas (2016-06-28). "Texas Abortion Clinics That Have Closed Since 2013". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  18. Tribune, The Texas (2016-06-28). "Texas Abortion Clinics That Have Closed Since 2013". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  19. Julie Bosman, "Anti-Abortion Activists Worry That a New City Law Will Make Their Task Harder", The New York Times, 5 June 2009
  20. Alesha E. Doan (2007). Opposition and Intimidation:The abortion wars and strategies of political harassment. University of Michigan. p. 23.
  21. Doan 2007, p. 106.
  22. Doan 2007, p. 115.
  23. Freeman, Hadley (20 January 2012). "Diablo Cody: devil's advocate". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  24. Clarke, Cath (23 November 2007). "Just don't say the A-word". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
  25. Journal, Yochi J. Dreazen Staff Reporter of The Wall Street (2002-05-28). "Abortion Protesters Use Cameras, Raise New Legal Issues, Lawsuits". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  26. Carmon, Irin. "Abortions made public". Salon. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  27. Access to Abortion Services Act. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  28. Liptak, Adam; Schwartz, John (2014-06-26). "Court Rejects Zone to Buffer Abortion Clinic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  29. "The Death of Dr. Gunn". The New York Times. March 12, 1993.
  30. National Abortion Federation (2009), "Incidence of Violence & Disruption Against Abortion Providers in the U.S. & Canada"
  31. National Abortion Federation. (2007). "Arsons and Bombings Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine."
  32. Daly, Christopher B. (March 19, 1996). "Salvi Convicted of Murder in Shootings". Washington Post.

Further reading
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