[ad_1]
Planned Parenthood in Montana will no longer provide medication abortions to residents of states where abortions have been banned – and will now require proof of residency from anybody seeking that treatment.
Planned Parenthood Montana president Martha Fuller made the announcement in an email to staff on Thursday morning.
Surgical abortions will still be available to people from any state, she noted.
The ban on medication abortions applies to residents who reside in states where total bans are in place, which include South Dakota, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Trigger bans in North Dakota and Wyoming are expected take place within weeks.
Fuller did not clarify why access to medication abortion, which involves patients taking two separate pills, was being restricted while surgical abortion policy is unchanged.
But it may be possible that Montana Planned Parenthood is trying to avoid potential lawsuits that could arise if a patient takes their pills to induce an abortion in a state where abortion is illegal.
Surgical abortions requirements are likely unchanged as the procedure must be done in person in a clinic.
Planned Parenthood in Montana will no longer provide medication abortion to residents of states where abortions have been banned, and will require proof of residency from anybody seeking that treatment
‘As you know, the abortion access landscape is rapidly changing across our region,’ Fuller wrote in her email to Montana staff.
‘The risks around cross-state provision of services are currently less than clear, with the potential for both civil and criminal action for providing abortions in states with bans.’
Though abortions remain legal in Montana, all four states surrounding it have already outlawed or begun the process of outlawing abortion through trigger bans – laws that have been in place which render abortion illegal in the event of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, as occurred on June 24.
‘Let’s be clear: Planned Parenthood of Montana will continue to serve patients from out of state who are seeking abortion,’ Fuller told The Daily Beast in a statement.
Planned Parenthood Montana president Martha Fuller (above) made the announcement in an email to staff on Thursday morning
Women demonstrate against the overturning of Roe v. Wade during a protest in Washington D.C. Thursday
The move from Planned Parenthood Montana is likely to be just the beginning of a chaotic period as states feel out ways to provide abortions for people, or prevent women from receiving them.
Already, states like Texas and Oklahoma have begun enacting laws aimed at preventing its citizens from receiving abortions out of state.
Fuller’s announcement is indicative of the defensive position abortion clinics and advocates in majority-Republican regions of the country face.
‘We will end up in a country where we have this patchwork of states where access to abortion is available and states where it’s not, and you know, already I can see the chaos that is beginning to happen,’ Fuller said in a statement last Friday after the overturning of Roe v. Wade was announced.
President Joe Biden gave a brief press conference on the last day of the NATO summit in Madrid on Thursday
Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema remain steadfast in their defense of the filibuster, their offices said, despite public pressure from all the way up to President Biden
The news from Montana comes as President Biden vowed to fight for abortion laws, while saying that the US Supreme court was ‘destabilizing’ America with its ‘outrageous’ ruling.
Speaking to reporters at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, he condemned the ruling and its impact.
‘America is better positioned to lead the world than we ever have been,’ he said.
‘But one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of United States in overruling not only Roe v. Wade, but essentially challenging the right to privacy.’
And he said he would support a carve-out so that Democrats in Congress could pass laws to protect abortion rights, even without 60 votes in the Senate.
‘The first and foremost thing we should do, is make it clear how outrageous this decision was and how much it impacts – not just on a woman’s right to choose, which is a critical, critical piece – but on privacy generally,’ Biden said.
‘And so I’m going to be talking to the governors as to what actions they think I should be taking as well.’
[ad_2]
Source link
