TEMPE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — For the first time in more than a year, the Planned Parenthood location in Tempe is offering abortion services.
They paused services there after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the organization says it’s been dealing with significant staffing shortages since then.
Bạn đang xem: Tempe Planned Parenthood clinic resumes abortions following year-long closure
Dr. Jill Gibson was busy Tuesday, going from patient to patient. “People were even showing up without appointments trying to be seen today,” she said.
Since a June 2022 Supreme Court ruling ended abortion protections, there was confusion over which state’s abortion law took precedence: a 15-week ban or a near-total ban. “There was just complete chaos and confusion for our patients, our community and providers. There was a real threat of criminal prosecution for people who were providing this essential health care service,” said Gibson.
Xem thêm : Taco Cabana Offering Menu Options Under 400 Calories
The back-and-forth legal rulings, according to Planned Parenthood’s chief medical director, left employees with few options. “Staff basically were concerned they weren’t going to have a livelihood, that they wouldn’t have jobs, that they wouldn’t be able to pay heir rent, have food on the table,” Gibson said. “During that time we lost a lot of our staff. Interestingly a lot of those staff members who were super committed to providing this type of health care went to states where they new there would not be a threat to them.”
Before Tuesday, only the Glendale and Tucson locations were offering abortion services. “This has been a long time coming we’ve been closed for a little over a year for abortion services,” Gibson said.
In just a few hours, Dr. Gibson saw a number of patients trying to decide whether they could proceed or terminate their pregnancy.
But the future of abortion in Arizona remains unknown as the state’s Supreme Court weighs in on whether it will reimpose a near-total ban on abortions or continue to allow the procedure up to 15 weeks. “As we’ve been investing and rebuilding our program, it’s what we’ve had to do. It’s what we want to do. It’s what we need to do to rebuild this community, but it’s all being done with this persistent looming threat that everything could again be pulled out from underneath us and we could be again unable to provide this essential health care service,” she said.
Xem thêm : Can You Freeze Shellfish?
Dr. Gibson says the next steps for Planned Parenthood are to once again begin offering surgical abortions at its Tempe location in a few months and at the Flagstaff clinic.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2024 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
Nguồn: https://buycookiesonline.eu
Danh mục: Info