LATimes: A Desert Oasis for Abortion Patients / Imperial Valley clinic sees surge from Arizona

Cross posting to GD. There have been questions on and off about planning (or lack of it) fro the fall of Roe. This article answers a lot of those questions: planning, co-ordination, assistance — all have been in motion for quite awhile. Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest are heroes.

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https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?token=42e23962a5d74614be16bae3d62d13e7&utm_id=61499&sfmc_id=1778350&edid=5ac9bd6c-63dd-4b49-ad20-dc3f68161c0e

A DESERT OASIS FOR ABORTION PATIENTS

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The El Centro clinic was always busy. Now it’s overwhelmed as it finds itself on the front lines of the drastic changes wrought by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs decision….

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A recent report from the UCLA School of Law’s Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy estimates that between 8,000 and 16,100 more people will journey to California each year for abortion care, and at least half of those will travel from Arizona because of the long border it shares with California.
Since the Dobbs decision, out-of-state patients have increased at all 19 clinics in San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties affiliated with Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.

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In El Centro, (office manager) Perez, ……. had long prepared for a rise in patient visits. ….
In the Imperial Valley, the Planned Parenthood center in El Centro is one of the most affected because it’s the closest to Arizona, where legal abortion care vanished overnight. …..

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Out-of-state patients — especially Arizonans — aren’t something new for the El Centro center. Ever since it opened seven years ago, it was clear that Planned Parenthood-Imperial Valley Health Center wouldn’t just serve El Centro.
An easy 20-minute drive from the Mexican border and an hour from Yuma, Ariz., the center has long served as a refuge, particularly for Mexicans and Arizonans seeking abortion care. ….. It’s not far from Yuma, Phoenix, Tucson.
…… Anticipating that Arizona might be one of those states to do away with abortion if Roe fell, Planned Parenthood officials in California and Arizona created a system to provide coordinated abortion care and help funnel Arizonans to providers in California. Planned Parenthood staffers in Arizona confirm each case of pregnancy and then refer the patients to clinics in California.

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