“A lot of doctors’ offices put caps on how many medical assistance patients they might see, but we don’t do that because we really want to provide for people that need it the most,” said Paulina Briggs, the lab supervisor and a patient educator at the clinic.īut out-of-state patients don’t qualify for Minnesota’s medical assistance program. Casey estimated that the clinic lost more than $60,000 last year by serving medical assistance patients, a deficit the clinic had to make up through fundraising and grants. Most of the Minnesota patients at the clinic qualify for low-income assistance to help with the cost of an abortion, but it doesn’t cover the full cost of the procedure. “If that would have been a Minnesota resident, we would’ve been able to give them an abortion, no problem.” And to tell someone we legitimately cannot help them with anything, and they are stuck with a forced pregnancy … is just a complete takeaway of power,” Thompson said. The “entire purpose of (my) career is to provide abortion care. However, state law requires patients to have a Minnesota mailing address and to be physically in Minnesota when speaking with a doctor. “The number of patients we serve has gone up, and the places they come from have gotten further away,” Johnson said.Īnd the clinic isn’t able to help everyone who calls.Ĭassidy Thompson, a patient educator and coordinator of the clinic’s volunteer patient escort program, recounted a call from a woman in Oklahoma who was “crying to me on the phone, saying, ‘Can’t you help me? No other clinics can take me right now.’” That patient was hoping for a telehealth consultation that would allow her to stay in Oklahoma and still obtain a medication abortion from the clinic. The extra patient load at WE Health Clinic includes people who have struggled to get speedy appointments at some Minneapolis-area clinics, where five of the state’s seven abortion clinics are located, following the Supreme Court’s decision. Johnson said the increased pressure began months before the Supreme Court decision, with inquiries from people in Texas and Oklahoma as those states introduced highly restrictive abortion bans. Judith Johnson, one of three doctors providing abortions at the clinic. And we are working on efficiencies so that we’re ready if we do end up with a flood of patients,” said Dr. “We haven’t overcome our capacity to serve patients yet. On this day, Johnson and Richards were talking about abortions between appointments. Richards was on her first rotation and remarked how excited and in love she was with the work she was doing. Judith Johnson, right, talks with third-year University of Minnesota medical student Rachel Richards, Thursday, Jat WE Health Clinic in Duluth, Minn. Its staff try to schedule abortions on other days when necessary, and may set aside an additional half- or full day each week for abortion services. The clinic has raised its cap on patients from 16 to 20 on the one day a week when abortions are typically performed. North Dakota is expected to follow suit in late July and Iowa’s Republican governor is asking the state courts to severely limit the procedure. Abortion is now illegal or treated as such in Wisconsin and South Dakota. Today, the clinic’s employees are acutely aware of their state’s status as an island for legal abortion in the Upper Midwest. Wade was reversed, WE Health Clinic was the nearest abortion provider for some people in northern Wisconsin, northern Minnesota and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. "We're rallying the troops out here and offering women going in there a true choice." (AP Photo/Derek Montgomery)Įven before Roe v. "I want to be a witness to the dignity of human life," Asmussen said. Protesters like Asmussen are often seen outside the clinic during days when abortions are taking place. So we try to be as accommodating as we can.” Anti-abortion protester Jeff Asmussen, center, attempts to talk to a clinic escort, Thursday, July 7, 2022, at WE Health Clinic in Duluth, Minn. A lot of our patients - even if they’re from Minnesota - travel one to three hours each way to get here. “We’re trying to be as flexible as we can, especially with people coming out of state. “It’s just been really busy,” Laurie Casey, the executive director, said. In the waiting room at WE Health Clinic in Duluth, patients from Wisconsin and Texas sit among Minnesotans - the leading edge of an expected uptick in out-of-state patients following the Supreme Court’s removal of the federal right to abortion. (AP) - On the top floor of a modest two-story brick building near the shore of Lake Superior, the executive director of northern Minnesota’s only abortion clinic flits from room to room, checking in patients, fielding phone calls from people seeking appointments and handling billing questions from those struggling to pay.
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