CLEVELAND, Ohio — As the nation continues to work out how to move forward following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion clinics are caught in the middle.
“We've been able to see very few of our patients,” said Aimee Maple, Finance Director for "Preterm" a nonprofit abortion clinic in Cleveland, Ohio.
About half of U.S. states are working on or already have legislation to restrict or ban abortions and the other half are working to become safe-havens. The focus in New York has been the latter but in Ohio, it’s been the former.
“The impact has been a bit quicker than we were expecting, so as of Friday evening Ohio providers are no longer able to provide abortions to patients that have pregnancies with detectable fetal heart tones,” Maple said.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost reinstated the state's so-called 'Heartbeat Bill' Friday evening after it was stayed by a federal judge back in 2019. The law opens up abortion providers to civil or criminal penalties if a clinic performs an abortion around or after the sixth week of pregnancy.
Maple said 98.5% of "Preterm's" abortions could not have happened if the 'Heartbeat Law' was in place last year, so now most of their current patients are being referred out of state.
"This is absolutely new territory for us to be referring to this magnitude of patients," Maple said.
Clinic options for Cleveland patients now include Erie, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Michigan, Illinois, and the Buffalo area. Maple said she has spoken to several clinics in Western New York because a single one couldn't handle the growing number of cases.
"Some of these clinics are at capacity already so it's creating a real backlog of people who need abortions as well."
Whether Western New York becomes a destination for those seeking an abortion, Maple added that it remains too early to tell. "Preterm" however will have resources available for those in need of financial help if travel is necessary.
"I don't know if there are going to be certain locations that patients are going to choose to go to, it depends on clinic capacities also, time will tell," Maple said.