Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo
Colorado reproductive health clinics say the number of patients from outside of Colorado has in some cases doubled in the two weeks since Roe v. Wade was overturned, triggering abortion bans in other states, and a fund that provides financial help for people seeking to terminate a pregnancy has provided money to 71 people, more than twice the number served in all of 2021.
Colorado providers say they’re preparing for the influx of new patients to continue, and to meet the demand, some are hiring and training midwives to help conduct abortions. Others are opening mobile clinics in border communities. One center is making room in the clinic for people who need surgical abortions by using telehealth appointments to see patients seeking to end their early pregnancies with medications.
“For us, it means we’re really trying to make sure that we can continue to provide the high-quality care that we always do in our abortion services — that we’re able to see the patients and accommodate them as best we can,” said Savita Ginde, a strategic health care consultant at Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center.
The Boulder clinic primarily provided abortions when it first opened in 1973, the same year the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that generally protected a person’s right to choose to have an abortion.
Since the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case that overturned Roe on June 24, Boulder Valley Women’s Health administrators say they have been working harder than ever to keep providing reproductive health care to Colorado clients who need it, while also serving the influx of out-of-state patients seeking abortion care. Some come to the clinic for abortions, but patients also are there for breast and cervical exams, gender-affirming care, routine annual exams and other preventive care.
Read more from Tatiana Flowers, The Colorado Sun.
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