Over 50 abortion clinics have shut down over the last three years in the United States because of the anti-abortion laws of the country.
In a recent Huffington Post analysis, the portal reported the closure of at least 52 abortion clinics across the United States since 2010. The reason being the adoption of harsh anti-abortion laws in the country over the years. Anti-abortion measures, better known as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAPs), have been implemented across the country over the last three years.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, unnecessary anti-abortion laws have been implemented in at least 27 states across the U.S.
"This kind of change is incredibly dramatic," Elizabeth Nash, the state issues manager at the Guttmacher Institute, told the Huffington Post in reference to the dozens of recent clinic closures. Nash explained that although there's been a slow decline in the number of legal abortion providers since 1982, the dramatic changes over the past several years are "so different from what's happened in the past."
Experts predict more such closures in the future. States like North Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and Ohio are likely to see some of their abortion clinics either consolidate or shut down completely. In states like Alabama and Mississippi, litigation has helped prevent shutting down of clinics.
This dramatic closure of clinics has led to a scarcity of quality abortion clinics. Hence women are forced to travel to other states to get an abortion done.
"Most states said that they conduct regular inspections of abortion clinics, or of hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, or other types of facilities where abortions can be carried out," RH Reality Check reported. "And most states said they were aware of very few - if any - incidents of patients being harmed as a result of an abortion."
According to Nash, these anti-abortion restrictions have done little to curb abortion and unintentional pregnancy.
"These restrictions do nothing to reduce the need for abortion or to reduce unintended pregnancy," Nash said. "I would say that those that are promoting these very burdensome clinic regulations have as an end goal the elimination of legal abortion. They don't have women's health in mind."
