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Summit County’s uninsured women face risks if Roe v. Wade is overturned

People's Health Clinic

A local health provider says if the leaked Supreme Court documents signaling the end of Roe v. Wade become law, the implications could be dire for vulnerable populations here.

Whether one is for or against legal abortion, it's a choice women have had for nearly 50 years.

On May 2nd, Politico published a leaked draft version of a Supreme Court opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that showed a majority of the court favored overturning Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that guaranteed abortion rights.

In a staff meeting May 3rd at The People’s Health Clinic in Park City, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Marie Leining said her major concern was how to best serve a population that is uninsured and falls well below the poverty line if abortions are banned.

“It's our patients who will be at the greatest risk," she said. "You know, my focus and concern is for the health of our patients. Again, most do not have the ability to get health insurance. So they're not just uninsured they're uninsurable. It means that they already have very limited access to health care. And if they are unable to get reproductive health services in a responsible manner, you know, my patients are the population who will end up having increased rates in morbidity and mortality.”

In 2020 Utah passed SB 174, a so-called trigger law, which would make it a second-degree felony to get an abortion. The law will immediately take effect if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

The 2020 law provides exceptions for rape and incest, life of the mother, or if two doctors say the fetus has a lethal defect. Last month the state republican party proposed changes to its platform that would eliminate all those exceptions.

Leining said reproductive health care is a growing area of service her clinic provides. In 2021 the clinic saw a 70 percent increase in the number of women’s health appointments over 2020, some of which was reproductive care. Providers there served 930 women in obstetrics.

The clinic doesn’t provide abortions, but does refer women to providers in Salt Lake City. Since January, the clinic has referred four women for abortions. Leining said at times, abortion can save or protect a woman’s life.

“One patient in particular was told by her kidney specialist if she were to carry her baby to term at this point, she was 12 weeks when she figured out she was pregnant, that she would end up with kidney failure, she would have to be on hemodialysis," Leining said. "The significance of that is if you did not have insurance and you're an undocumented resident, you're not eligible to get hemodialysis or a kidney transplant. And so this is how our patients do not have a safety net to be able to afford this restriction in reproductive health rights.”

In the past year, the clinic created a same-day contraception program, which means that if a patient calls the clinic and says they want to start a form of birth control they can come in and start immediately. That also includes emergency contraception.

Leining said that with a community as economically diverse as Park City it’s important to understand the contributions and needs of the workforce, some of whom are undocumented.

“You know, just to in Park City, it is incredibly important to acknowledge our wealth gap, and that we have a working poor population who does not have the safety net for health care. And, you know, our community is not healthy, unless we're healthy together. And it's really, really important that we take care of everyone in our community.”

For more information about The People’s Health Clinic, visit www.peopleshealthclinic.org