(Life Issues Institute) As expected, many abortion facilities have closed since the Dobbs decision.
Let’s take a closer look at how Dobbs has impacted the abortion industry.
Keeping track of abortion center closings is like picking up Jell-O with your hands. The numbers change almost weekly.
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Hardest hit has been the independent abortion centers known as “indies.” Many were located in red states, where abortion has been totally or near totally ended. Further, they lack the name recognition, federal tax funding, or fundraising firepower of Planned Parenthood to keep their doors open.
In addition, the indies are more likely to offer late-term abortions – those after the first trimester – which is a more complicated and expensive way to kill the unborn. Also, it has a higher rate of complications and vulnerability to lawsuits. In other words, their overhead can be significantly higher than the neighboring Planned Parenthood that only offers chemical abortion pills.
According to the Abortion Care Network, the rate of indies closing in the months after the Dobbs decision was more than double the closures during the year before. That is not surprising. What may be, however, is the tenacity of the former killing centers as they franticly pivot to stay open.
Thirty days after the Dobbs decision, Guttmacher Institute – originally founded as the research arm of Planned Parenthood – reported that seven states had ended all abortions and that 43 abortion centers in 11 states stopped committing abortions. Some were providing alternate services, others planned to move to states permitting abortion, and still others closed permanently.
Guttmacher then took a detailed look at the abortion landscape 100 days post-Dobbs. At that point, 66 abortion facilities in 15 states stopped killing the unborn.
It didn’t take long for this financial reality to catch up with the bottom line.
Of the 66 centers, 40 continued to offer non-abortion services. These include hormonal treatment for the purpose of sexually transitioning, birth control, and STD testing and treatment. However, none can match the lucrative income generated by abortion and as a result, 26 facilities closed and others were in danger of doing so.
Planned Parenthood’s notorious claim that abortion was only 3% of their services proved to be propaganda. It is doing considerable juggling to maintain financial viability in a post-Dobbs environment.
Shortly after announcing significant layoffs at the national office, the abortion giant is closing and/or consolidating outlets. Earlier this month Planned Parenthood “temporarily” closed its Logan, Utah, abortion center with no explanation.
After 50 years in operation, their abortion affiliate in Steamboat Springs, Colo., abruptly closed its doors, even catching the staff unaware. The Alamosa, Colo., center had been closed for several months.
In Iowa they are closing three of their nine centers, impacting Cedar Falls, Council Bluffs, and southern Des Moines. Sarah Traxler, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood, said that since Roe’s demise, they’ve experienced a 13% decrease in abortions in the state, which she attributes to a 24-hour waiting period.
Another reason for the closures, Traxler said, is the stigma toward the abortion giant affecting their recruitment and retention of staff. Simply put, people are not inclined to work at an abortion facility, and if they do, they aren’t there very long.
On the move
The lucrative abortion industry generates income that makes it difficult to just close its doors. It is motivating abortion centers to move from states that protect their unborn children to those that do not. “I’m just not ready to walk away,” said Kathaleen Pittman of a Shreveport abortion center. Louisiana’s three abortion centers in New Orleans, Batton Rouge, and Shreveport will relocate, but declined to offer information on where they are going.
A Memphis, Tenn., center is relocating to Carbondale, Ill. The remaining abortion center in Mississippi is moving to Las Cruces, N.M. The only North Dakota abortion facility has moved a short distance over the state line to Moorhead, Minn. Whole Women’s Health is fundraising to move its center to N.M. An abortionist moved his San Antonio, Texas, facility to Albuquerque, N.M.. His daughter moved her abortion center from Tulsa, Okla., to Carbondale, Ill.
Parking lot abortions
An Illinois Planned Parenthood has stolen a page from the gamebook of pro-life pregnancy centers. It’s taken delivery of an RV but instead plans to offer chemical and some surgical abortions wherever they park.
We will not give up!
Less you think states like New Mexico and Illinois are impossible to turn around, remember that in the seventies all of America was a New Mexico or Illinois. They told us then that we were fighting a losing battle, but we didn’t believe them because we knew the alternative was too ghastly to contemplate. Roe is dead but we will engage in this battle until all America’s unborn children and their parents are protected from the horrors of abortion.
Editor's note: Bradley Mattes is president of the Life Issues Institute. This article first appeared on the Life Issues Institute website.
