After the Supreme Court denied an appeal last week that challenged access to mifepristone, a drug that is widely used to help induce abortions, Bay Area advocates and health care providers breathed sighs of relief.“This was a tiny win for us this past week,” said Dr. Josie Urbina, an abortion provider at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.
“Even people here in California and the physicians that provide abortions that are protected, we will have to go along with whatever national laws are put in place,” Urbina said. “It’s just unfortunate to see that people that have no medical training will be able to tell people what they can and can’t do.”
There are six facilities in The City that offer abortions through the San Francisco Department of Public Health and 29 that provide reproductive-health services. That said, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where women are coming from to access abortion care. Data collected by The Examiner indicated the states with the largest increases in patients coming to California were Texas and Arizona.
Ex // Top Stories Supes pass mayor's pilot program closing some Tenderloin stores overnight Mayor London Breed introduced the ordinance to combat late-night crowding and open-air drug dealing in the neighborhood Some organizations — such as ACCESS Reproductive Justice, a California abortion fund — offer assistance for travel expenses or lodging, Urbina said. However, not all patients might be aware such support is available.
That can lead to women suffering from complications because they’re too scared to seek care in their home states, said Dr. Daniel Grossman, director of the research group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at UCSF. As more restrictive reproductive-care policies are proposed — such as the recent resolution adopted by Southern Baptist Convention delegates about discouraging the use of in-vitro fertilization, there could be a chilling effect on new OB-GYNs and abortion providers entering the workforce.