Photo: Matt Slocum Associated Press Abortion rights activists demonstrate outside Philadelphia City Hall in June 2022.
Jessica Nadeau
Published at 0:00
- United States
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In Pennsylvania, long before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade two years ago, a series of measures were in place to more subtly limit access to abortion. And unfortunately, it works too well, laments a manager at the oldest abortion clinic in this northeastern state.
“The landscape is very chaotic from one end of the United States to the other, and you see a bit of everything. Pennsylvania is somewhere in the middle. That is to say, abortion remains legal, but is heavily restricted.” And this has been the case for years, well before [the Supreme Court's 2022 judgment],” he immediately asserts to DevoirRoxanne Sutocky, director of community engagement at the Women’s Center in Philadelphia.
She has seen, in spite of herself, a “slow deterioration in access” to abortion, which can be explained by the many restrictions adopted “on the sly” in recent years. “It’s as if it’s accepted that we can restrict abortion, as long as it’s legal,” she denounces.
“All the warnings, the bells and sirens started to ring when we started making abortion illegal in this country. But if you’re poor, if you live in a rural area [of Pennsylvania], abortion was already something that was inaccessible to you—so it might as well have been illegal—well before the Dobbs decision.”
To (re)read
A Mandatory Reflection Period
Among the many hurdles imposed by the state of Pennsylvania is the mandatory reflection period. Women are required by law to go to their doctor to have a statement read to them and wait 24 hours before they can have an abortion.
“It’s a very paternalistic law, which assumes that people who want an abortion need to take their time and think about it. It’s very stigmatizing,” Roxanne Sutocky says, rolling her eyes at her screen during the videoconference interview in April.
“Most of the rules that are in place are supposed to better protect women, but in reality, they’re just barriers.”
She cites the many regulatory requirements that abortion clinics must follow as an example. “They’re going to have to have walls that are a certain height, procedure rooms that are a certain size, things like that that don’t do anything medically, but they make it extremely expensive to provide these services.”
Some clinics have had to close, she explains. Others have backed out before they even opened because they refused to pass the bill on to patients so as not to further limit access to abortion for those with little means. Indeed, Pennsylvania prohibits the use of Medicaid — a government insurance program that covers medical expenses for low-income people — for elective terminations. “It’s a very effective way to restrict abortion,” Sutocky laments. This law is currently being challenged in state courts.
Barriers… to voting too
In the current climate, where many states have banned abortion outright or imposed even stricter restrictions, Sutocky is still seeing an influx of women from neighboring states. There is also a lot of travel within the state. And, most importantly, a lot of questions and anxiety among patients.
She is pleased to see that the current governor, Democrat Josh Shapiro, is clearly pro-abortion. But nothing is ever a given. Especially not with the possibility of Donald Trump taking over the White House. Saying she is “very concerned” about what could happen, she encourages her patients to vote, reminding them that they must be registered to vote and directing them to resources that offer transportation if needed.
“We know that when people have the opportunity to vote on the issue of abortion, they are generally in favor,” she says. “But we also know that many people who face barriers when they want to have an abortion also face barriers when they want to vote…”