Cape’s lack of abortion services forces longer travel time, advocates say
While women in Massachusetts will retain the right to an abortion even if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, Cape and Islands residents have faced geographic barriers to pregnancy termination services for many years.
“The nearest abortion care route is more than 90 miles away,” Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, state.
“The closest location with access to surgical abortion is Boston or Attleboro,” Cyr said.
Over the years there has been much talk about but little action to replace the services previously provided at the Women’s Health Center in Hyannis.
The Camp Street abortion provider closed in 2008 when a client died after a procedure.
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The doctor who runs the practice, Rapin Osathanondh, lost his medical license and was sentenced to six months in prison after he pleaded guilty to the involuntary manslaughter of the death of a woman whose heart stopped while under anesthesia.
Services are available in Massachusetts but not nearby
“There are services in place,” said Penelope Duby of Falmouth, chairperson of the Upper Cape Women’s Coalition. “They don’t have anywhere they need to.”
There is a real geographical limitation on Cape Cod, said Erin Andrews of Centerville, who helped organize an abortion rights rally on Saturday at Airport Rotary.
Traveling outside the Cape and out of the Island to get a procedural or surgical abortion increases the cost and difficulty of getting a procedure, Andrews said, especially for low -income women who need to arrange coverage. at work and child care.
Cyr wants to see abortion services restored in the Cape. But finding a way to do that is difficult, he said.
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Cape community health centers receive federal funding, and that’s a roadblock, he said.
“You’re federally regulated and you can’t provide services,” Cyr said. “Cape Cod Healthcare has the same problems as well.”
Abortion pills provide access, lower cost
Access to abortion services for women in the Cape and Islands increased significantly by the end of 2021 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted the ban on abortion pill prescriptions.
Since Dec. 16, the FDA has permanently removed the requirement for a personal visit to a medical provider to obtain a prescription, meaning patients can receive medication in the mail.
In Massachusetts, women seeking to end their pregnancies now have access to nine providers that can send them abortion pills after a consultation via video, phone or an online form, Carrie N said. .Baker, a professor of gender studies at Smith College in Northampton.
Mail ordering pills can be a cost saver, according to Baker.
Going to Planned Parenthood personally for abortion pills can cost $ 700, she said. But an Austrian nonprofit organization called Aid Access made them available for $ 150. It also provides a sliding scale fee for low -income patients.
Abortion pills, which contain mifepristone, which blocks progesterone and ends pregnancy, and misoprostol, which causes contractions, can only be used up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion services closest to Cape Cod
The cost of abortion services at Four Women’s Health Services in Attleboro, which terminates pregnancies up to 20.6 weeks gestational age, can run up to $ 2,300, according to the Reproductive Equity Now website, formerly known as NARAL.
At Brookline Women’s Health Services, which provides abortions for up to 23 weeks and six days of pregnancy assistance, pregnancy termination services can cost $ 3,300.
The federal Hyde Amendment, passed in 1977, prohibits states from using federal Medicaid dollars to pay for abortion unless the procedure is deemed “medically necessary” or the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
In addition:Access to abortion re-emerged as an issue in 2016
Massachusetts, however, is one of many states that uses its own funds to cover other abortions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The foundation says states often define abortions as necessary to protect the physical or mental health of women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
Cyr said after the May 2 leak, published by Politico, in a draft Supreme Court decision to reverse Roe v. Wade, the state Senate increased funding proposed by the House for reproductive services including grants for the abortion fund, from $ 500,000 to $ 2 million.
The proposed funding is “cooked up” in the proposed budget, Cyr said. “The Senate has really exaggerated it.”
Abortion funds are located in eastern Massachusetts
The fund that serves women in the Cape and Islands who cannot afford abortion services is the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund, Baker said.
The Roe Act passed by Massachusetts in December of 2020 hides abortion rights in state law and also expands access to 16-year-olds.
But Baker said he’s concerned that bans and abortion bans in other states mean longer waits for clinical care for Massachusetts residents.
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“People come here to have abortions,” she said. “This means longer waiting times in clinics for inpatient care. I’m very worried about the impact.”
That could add additional barriers for women in the Cape and Islands seeking pregnancy termination services in Boston, Attleboro and Providence.
“Getting out of the Cape is not something everyone can easily do,” Cyr said.
“It’s important that we not only ensure the right to choose in Massachusetts, but we ensure that access to reproductive health care including access to abortion is readily available-wherever you live in the commonwealth,” he said. niya.
Cynthia McCormick can be reached at [email protected] or at @Cmccormickcct
