Wyoming no longer has a clinic offering procedural abortions. Now, patients are traveling hundreds more miles to neighboring states for care.
The women鈥檚 health clinic in Casper, Wellspring Health Access, has served patients from across Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho and 16 other states.
A , pushed by abortion opponents, placed strict requirements on the clinic, including getting its physicians admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and making extensive renovations.
It couldn鈥檛 immediately meet those requirements, so It reopened again to patients seeking other kinds of services last week, but still can鈥檛 provide procedural abortions.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely deflating,鈥� said Julie Burkhart, who leads Wellspring.
Since the law passed last month, Burkhart said it turned away 80 patients seeking abortions and 29 seeking other types of care. It鈥檚 referring abortion patients to Colorado, Montana or Utah. That includes the clinics that are part of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
鈥淚t has a chilling impact, not only for Wyoming, but across the country,鈥� said Adrienne Mansanares, the president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.
She said clinics in Greeley and Fort Collins in northern Colorado have seen a surge since the Wyoming law passed about a month ago.
From February to March, the number of Wyoming patients increased by almost 50% (from 23 to 34), and almost ten more patients came from South Dakota (from 4 to 13), who would otherwise travel to Wyoming.
Mansanares said the clinics were prepared to meet the demand.
鈥淭hey will move mountains to be able to see patients who are traveling from Wyoming, South Dakota,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hose are very long distances. The drives can be treacherous, especially with spring storms coming.鈥�
On April 8 at 1:30 p.m., the Natrona County district court temporarily halting the Wyoming law that requires renovations. It鈥檒l also consider blocking , which requires pregnant people get a transvaginal ultrasound two days before taking abortion pills.
Abortion remains legal in Wyoming, though access is limited.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, 皇冠网址 in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the .