Merced County lacks abortion provider regardless of Supreme Court ruling

A U.S. Supreme Court decision this week to strike down a sweeping anti-abortion law in Texas was welcomed in Merced County by Planned Parenthood representatives who noted, however, that local women still must travel an hour or more to obtain such services.

The Texas law required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery, The Associated Press reported. At least nine other states have similar admitting-privileges requirements, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. The Supreme Court ruled 5-3 on Monday that the law, known as HB2, was unconstitutional.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the decision erodes states’ lawmaking authority to safeguard the health of women, the AP reported. Local opponents of abortion agreed.

“What I feel like is those five justices say they don’t care about women and they don’t care about health,” said Patricia Perry, vice president for United for Life of Merced County. “There are states trying to protect children and it’s not right for the Supreme Court to say we can’t protect our children and women this way.”

Women in Merced County have not had access to a local abortion provider since 2010, when the last doctor who offered the service retired, according to Desirre Herrera, regional program manager for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

The closest places for Merced women to receive abortions are about 50 minutes away, either in Modesto or Madera, she said.

Merced County often has a hard time keeping medical specialists in the area when they are pulled to more lucrative markets, Herrera said. That leaves local residents having to go outside the county for all sorts of specialized care and abortion is no different, she said. Planned Parenthood in Merced offers a variety of medical care services, but abortion is not among them due to the lack of a provider, Herrera said.

“Our county has a lot of health needs ... and we have a shortage of health care providers in the Central Valley in general,” Herrera said in an e-mail to the Sun-Star. “Challenges continue in keeping health care providers in the Central Valley that can serve all people in need.”

After Texas implemented the HB2 restrictions, many clinics struggled to meet the new standards, resulting in some women having to travel up to 300 miles to find an abortion provider, The Washington Post reported. Such providers could only be found in six Texas cities, the report said.

“The court found they placed significant burdens for women, through delays, increased travel distances and overnight stays,” Pedro Elias, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, said in an e-mail to the Sun-Star. He cited Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s opinion, which said: “It is beyond rational belief that H. B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions.”

In Merced County, the issue of transportation can be a huge obstacle, Herrera said.

It can be particularly burdensome for teenagers who have little access to transportation, noted Ushma Upadhyay, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

“That’s hard especially when you look at teen pregnancy, and especially when they don’t drive,” Upadhyay told the Sun-Star in a phone interview.

That lack of local access could help lead more young women to decide to carry their pregnancies to term, she said.

Merced County has one of the largest proportions in the state of mothers aged 15 to 19, according to the 2014 American Community Survey. Nine percent of births in 2013 were to mothers in this age group. The only county with a larger percentage of teen moms was Madera County with 15 percent, according to the survey.

There is also an issue of women needing follow-up care after an abortion, Upadhyay said. Some women who live greater distances from abortion providers — 50 miles or more — are more likely to seek care even for normal symptoms at emergency rooms such as light bleeding, which can prove to be expensive.

“Increasing (the) number of abortion providers would reduce the number of women who go to an emergency clinic for aftercare,” Upadhyay said.

There are no clear statistics on how many women in Merced County go elsewhere to seek abortions. Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, which covers 28 counties stretching from the Bay Area to the Bakersfield area and out to Nevada, estimated in its 2015 report that 18,305 abortions were performed. It’s not clear how many of those women may have come from Merced County.

This story was originally published June 28, 2016 at 7:14 PM with the headline "Merced County lacks abortion provider regardless of Supreme Court ruling."