Fate Of Tiller's Clinic Expected To Be Decided This Week

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 10 Jun 2009 - 5:00 PDT

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The family of murdered Kansas abortion provider George Tiller is expected to decide this week whether his Wichita clinic will reopen, NPR's "Morning Edition" reports. Tiller's clinic is one of the few in the U.S. that performs abortions later in pregnancy, and many abortion-rights advocates are concerned whether women in need of abortions in the second and third trimester would be able to obtain care if it were not reopened. LeRoy Carhart, a Nebraska abortion provider who worked with Tiller at his clinic for four years, said that although it is a difficult time for abortion providers, he hopes that the family will reopen the clinic. "This is a job that we took, and we were well-aware of the risks when we started, as was Dr. Tiller," he said. Providing abortion services in the second and third trimester is "a service that's so needed that it's worth the risks," he added (Lohr, "Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9). Carhart also said that although no decision on Tiller's clinic has been made, he "want[s] to assure the press and the women of America ... that we will somehow, somewhere continue to provide abortions later in gestation" (Duin, Washington Times, 6/9).

According to Carhart, there are only about 10 providers in the U.S. who perform abortions in the second and third trimesters, including a few hospitals that do not advertise the services. "Morning Edition" reports that most women's health care providers either are not trained or do not want to receive training to perform the procedure later in pregnancy. Providers who do tend to be older and face extreme pressure from antiabortion-rights advocates. Data from the Guttmacher Institute show that about 1% of all abortions performed in the U.S. occur after 21 weeks' gestation. Elizabeth Nash of Guttmacher said that 37 states have laws that limit access to abortion after a certain point in pregnancy, "usually around 24 weeks, which is at the end of the second trimester." She added that most of those states only allow abortions to save the life of the woman or if her physical health is in jeopardy. Pratima Gupta, an ob-gyn in California, said that she is concerned about what will happen to Tiller's patients. Gupta said Tiller "had patients that were scheduled for Monday morning. What happened to those patients for the rest of the week, the rest of the month? Those patients are the ones who need us" ("Morning Edition," NPR, 6/9).

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