Planned Parenthood is closing a clinic in the Philly suburbs. How else is Pa. abortion access changing?
"Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, but it sure as hell is not accessible," says a Planned Parenthood executive.
Planned Parenthood plans to close its Warminster location at the end of the month, leaving the organization with just one remaining clinic in suburban Philadelphia’s Bucks County.
The decision to close the site was difficult, the reproductive health provider said in a statement, calling it necessary to “keep up with the changing health-care environment and to ensure our patients receive the best care they can.”
Services at the Warminster location will continue through June 28; afterward, patients will receive care at Planned Parenthood’s nearby Bensalem location or through its mobile app and telehealth program.
Signe Espinoza, the executive director at Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates, the organization’s activist arm, spoke to The Inquirer about the changing state of abortion access in Pennsylvania and around the country. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
How accessible is abortion in Pennsylvania today?
Abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, but it sure as hell is not accessible. We had more than 145 abortion clinics in Pennsylvania when Roe v. Wade became the law of the land. Now, we have less than 20, and five of them provide medication abortions only.
Those clinics started really closing after laws were passed in Pennsylvania — waves of what we call “targeted restrictions on abortion providers” which are designed to close [a clinic] or make it way more difficult for it to operate.
The opposition has been chipping away at access to abortion care. In such a hostile environment, in such a restrictive state, it’s been really difficult to expand access to care.
What is Planned Parenthood doing to continue to ensure abortion access?
June will mark two years since the Dobbs decision, [the Supreme Court ruling that ended a national Constitutional right to abortion].
We need to reimagine a Pennsylvania beyond Roe, and what that’s going to look like. Planned Parenthood abortion centers across the state are still keeping their doors open and are committed to that. And we’re finding ways to expand access through telehealth and meeting folks where they are in the community.
» READ MORE: How overturning ‘Roe v. Wade’ affected abortion access in Pa.
What other efforts are underway to expand abortion access in the wake of Dobbs?
There are a lot of laws that we need to dismantle. Rep. Kristine Howard (D-Chester) has introduced a Reproductive Freedom Act that’s probably the most comprehensive abortion bill in Pennsylvania history. It’s what we call “dream legislation” — it really paints a picture of what we need in the moment, and it would remove some of the restrictions that make it difficult to access abortions.
Abortion regulation in this state should be moved into the Department of Health, rather than the criminal code.
And there’s a lot of other meaningful ways we can expand access [to abortion], like creating provisions to allow for the expansion of telemedicine, and ensuring there aren’t restrictions for covering abortion on Affordable Care Act insurance plans.