Last doctor to provide abortions in Wyoming may be leaving the state

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NBC News

Last doctor to provide abortions in Wyoming may be leaving the state

"If health care providers don't stand up for women's health care rights, who will?" said Brent Blue, 71, who ran a health clinic in Jackson for 19 years.

Dec. 19, 2021, 4:30 AM EST
By Jean Lee

People throughout Wyoming and Idaho drive hundreds of miles, sometimes through snow and rain, to get to a clinic at the base of the Teton Mountains in Jackson, Wyoming, to see Brent Blue. ... Blue is the only doctor in the state who openly provides surgical and medication abortions, but soon his services may no longer be available there. ... Abortion-rights activists say his absence would create a large gap in Wyoming's health care options and leave them more exposed to anti-abortion protesters who picket outside clinics and doctors' homes, sometimes damaging property or sending death threats.

While some doctors in Wyoming still discreetly provide abortions to a few longtime patients, Blue, 71, has advertised his services for decades in the sparsely populated state of 576,851. ... "If I succumbed to the threats and the risk, the anti-choice people win, and women lose," Blue said. "If health care providers don't stand up for women's health care rights, who will?"

Blue sold the clinic he started 19 years ago, Emergacare, to St. John's Health in 2020. He remained there as a physician but resigned in October with a 120-day notice, claiming a hostile work environment. His last day is scheduled for Feb. 10. ... St. John's Health did not respond to requests for comment.

Blue, who is divorced with three adult children, said he's considering moving to Idaho, where he believes it may be easier to establish a new clinic and would be closer to some of his patients than Jackson.

{snip}

Blue is one of only two providers of medication abortions in Wyoming. Women typically cannot access medication abortions, administered by prescription pill, after 10 weeks of pregnancy, said Dr. Giovannina Anthony, a physician at the other provider, Women's Health and Family Care.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/last-doctor-provide-abortions-wyoming-may-be-leaving-state-n1286098

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If you've been through that part of Idaho, you know that the closest big cities in Idaho to Jackson are Idaho Falls, Blackfoot, or, farther away but larger than those two, Pocatello.

[dem4decades]

1. Time for the rest of the Doctor's to leave too. Unless they're rightwing idiots, they'll want to s

[Puppyjive]

2. Charge the repubs with child support

It's time to charge the republican party with child support. They want to force the issue, they can pay for the consequences. If they can file a lawsuit in Texas, then they can step up and pay the costs of a raising a child.

[Hekate]

5. Yeah, that works well

[NullTuples]

3. He sold the clinic to a Catholic Hospital and was surprised they didn't support him?

One must ask why he sold to them specifically, although I'm sure the answer is "Because they target exactly those sort of clinics and hospitals for acquisition so they can control people's lives" (See: the American Bishops Health Directive document).

[Hekate]

4. As community hospitals have closed over the past 20+ years, Catholic hospitals have filled the gap

As you probably know by now, the old non-profit model has been pretty much wiped out. Without going in to all the reasons why that has been the case, it has left a lot of people in the lurch.

The Roman Catholic Church — or rather various orders within it — see medical practice as part of their charitable mission. Of course, in order to financially survive, they can’t do this for free and have to deal with insurance companies and all the rest just like everybody else. But to give them credit, they are there when others have gone away.

HOWEVER, when a hospital is run by a religious organization, it follows that religion’s doctrines. Thanks to every Republican president from Reagan on, they have been given tremendous latitude to do exactly that in regards to women’s health care needs. If a woman wants good prenatal care and a good birthing experience, she’ll very likely have that. If she wants contraception, Plan B, Morning After, or any form of pregnancy termination, she is SOL.

The rest if the family — the men and the children — can expect all their medical needs to be met. Women will also actually be well taken care of as long as they don’t expect reproductive rights.

I am 100% certain that he “sold to them specifically” because they were they only ones who would step in, out there hundreds and hundreds of miles from anywhere else.

[NullTuples]

8. Just to point out a few details...

- Since 2010 Catholic hospitals have provided less than average amounts of charitable care.
- LGBTQ people are also SOL at Catholic hospitals
- The American Bishops have made it clear they went on their buying spree specifically to have control over women's and LGBTQ heath care decisions in order to prevent them from "sinning".
- The RCC is the most wealthy organization on the planet, with the largest real estate holdings.
- It is reprehensible to run any public business that overtly discriminates against people on the basis of sex. But to discriminate in health care provided and do so based on one's opinion of the patient rather than based on best medical practices ethically should be considered malpractice.

[Hekate]

9. I used "Charitable" in a religious rather than an economic sense, really. US health access sucks...

We can agree on that.

As for the rest, I am sure you saw me write HOWEVER in all caps. I wrote about women because that is what we were discussing, and also because that’s what I know about (Planned Parenthood supporter since 1968). I was not slighting anyone else.

I was not ignoring the sins of the Church by omission — just noting that Catholic hospitals are proliferating as secular community hospitals disappear, until they become the only choice for too many communities. Personally, I find that appalling, for all the reasons stated. I do blame the GOP and every GOP president since Reagan.

[NullTuples]

10. In regards to the change of ownership

"Catholic hospitals are proliferating as secular community hospitals disappear, until they become the only choice for too many communities."

This is by design, the RCC is buying them out long before they'd have to shut down or search out other options like partnerships with larger health care groups, if it came to that. And they're specifically targeting ones in isolated areas, with regional trauma centers, or that have always been just on the black-ink side of solvency. Not to be helpful; to control people's choices about their bodies. It's literally in black and white in the directives set out by the Bishops. The RCC is buying control.

[LogicFirst]

6. I can't imagine the number of babies who are going to be

dropped off at fire departments, etc. Wait for the screaming when they are overwhelmed.

[StevieM]

11. That won't happen very often.

Most women who are denied an abortion will ultimately keep and raise the baby. That doesn't mean they have changed their minds about whether or not they should have been able to terminate the pregnancy. But when the baby is born the thought of adoption is unimaginable to most women. Birth mothers do not simply give up their children and move on.

As for fire departments, that is a very rare occurrence, which only happens in the most dire of circumstances. The mothers who are compelled to give the babies up for adoption--driven by economic factors, not a lack of desire to parent the child--will almost always do so through traditional methods. They will either find an adoption agency or they will find prospective adoptive parents on their own. And almost all of them will seek to arrange an open adoption.

[quakerboy]

7. Just wait till the SCOTUS gets done removing all protections of access to abortions

And the Manchin sponsored republican re-take of government makes it properly illegal.