Abortion bans are fueling a rise in high-risk patients heading to Illinois hospitals

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Illinois hospitals are seeing a surge of out-of-state patients who need abortion care at a hospital due to medical complications. But hospital-based abortions are more costly and harder to arrange.

"It's really awful," McIntosh said, recalling difficult conversations with patients who wanted to be pregnant, but whose babies faced dire outcomes.

"Am I worried that someone might think that it doesn't satisfy that?" McIntosh said."Absolutely, that terrifies me."Dr. Jonah Fleisher's phone is often ringing and buzzing with texts. An OB-GYN who specializes in abortion and contraception at UI Health, near the Rush hospital in Chicago,Roe "I know that some number of those women are not going to make it through birth and postpartum," Fleisher said."More than the stress of somebody who's actually making it to see me, that's the thing that causes me more stress."Medical costs, in addition to travel, are a big obstacle for high-risk patients seeking abortion care at hospitals. The patient from Missouri owed around $6,000 for her hospital stay, Laursen said.

In many cases, patients have a hard time accessing abortion care, and the delays push them further into their pregnancies until they need to have the procedure in a hospital, said Melissa Fowler, chief program officer at the"We're seeing more cases right now people who are later in gestation," Fowler said."More adolescents who are later in gestation, who are showing up at hospitals because this is really their last resort. They've been referred all over.

 

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