Pa.’s missing health care | Morning Newsletter

We have some better weather coming today, with highs expected in the mid-60s and partly cloudy skies.

Today, we’re taking a look at how the majority of Pennsylvania counties don’t have an abortion provider.

Also, we’ll look at how much of the Philly area’s fracked gas is exported.

If you see this 🔒 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.

— Evan Weiss (@eaweiss, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)

In the vast stretch of Pennsylvania between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, it can be almost as hard to get an abortion as in Mississippi, the state at the center of a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft decision that appears poised to overturn nationwide abortion rights. Although Pennsylvania has never enacted restrictions as stringent as Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks, the laws on the books still have effectively wiped out access in much of the commonwealth. More than 90% of abortions take place in eight of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties; only 14 counties even have an abortion provider.

Though opponents of abortion say such laws are necessary to ensure safe medical care, Pennsylvania has whittled away access to abortions and made the process burdensome for patients and providers.

Living near a clinic is useless for those who can’t afford hundreds of dollars for a medical service not covered by Medicaid or most private insurance plans. Those who can find the money must go through mandatory counseling, then wait 24 hours. Minors need a legal guardian’s permission. And everyone must complete tests that medical experts consider unneeded for most patients.

And that’s just the beginning. My colleague Sarah Gantz explores Pennsylvania’s legacy of abortion restrictions and the current hurdles patients face.

For all of 2011, when shale gas extraction was picking up momentum in Pennsylvania, only one vessel departed the Delaware Bay loaded with gas liquids, according to data supplied by the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, a trade group for the shipping industry. Gas liquids are a byproduct of natural gas production, as well as oil refining.

By last year, though, 328 tankers left Delaware River terminals carrying shipments of gas liquids, or nearly one out of four of the 1,346 cargo vessels that set sail from the region (container vessels accounted for the majority). While other industrial sectors stalled during the pandemic, the number of vessels loaded with propane, butane, and ethane at Philadelphia-area wharves jumped 61% in the last two years.

My colleague Andrew Maykuth tells the story of the system that is now driving up exports of fracked gas.

A Philly institution is trying something unique: to make classical music more like Netflix. Today’s question: What institution is conducting this experiment? Take a guess and find the answer here.

a. The Philadelphia Orchestra

b. The Curtis Institute

c. Settlement Music School

d. Four Penn grad students

🤔 Learning: Philly-area rents are going up everywhere, but especially in the suburbs.

😤 Frustrated at (as someone who finally has to get a slightly bigger “family car”): New-car buyers face slim pickings and high prices amid inflation and supply shortages.

This Philadelphia-based rock band has a medical and animalistic name.

odd. rg

Think you know? Send your guess our way at morningnewsletter@inquirer.com. We’ll give a shout-out to a reader at random who answers correctly. Today’s shout-out goes to Richard Brasch, who correctly guessed Cave of Kelpius as Sunday’s answer.

That’s all for today! My colleague Felicia Gans Sobey will be here tomorrow.