California leaders responded swiftly after last week’s Arizona Supreme Court ruling banning almost all forms of abortion in the state.
They reaffirmed a promise they’ve made before: that people who need abortion care can come to California.
But just next door to Arizona — in California’s Imperial Valley — access to safe and affordable abortion care isn’t always easy to find. The Planned Parenthood Imperial Valley Woman Health Center in El Centro is the only abortion provider in Imperial County. The clinic is currently operating out of a portable unit after its building burned down last year. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Up to half of the clinic’s patients come from out of state, Planned Parenthood officials told KPBS last year, including patients from Arizona and cities across the U.S.-Mexico border like Mexicali.
The clinic first opened in 2015 after decades of heated debate, according to Kimala Price, a former board member of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest and chair of the Women’s Studies Department at San Diego State University.
Some Imperial Valley communities are strongly divided over reproductive rights. Many residents celebrated the clinic’s opening and have continued to support its work, but Planned Parenthood also faced staunch resistance from abortion rights opponents.
“You don't mention abortion when you're running for office in that area,” Price said. “So trying to get that political support was tricky.”
Price said the recent Arizona ruling will lead to more people crossing state lines to get abortions.
Some people will likely choose to bypass the El Centro clinic altogether and head to other Southern California cities, like San Diego or Los Angeles. But Price pointed out that it takes time and money to purchase plane or bus tickets to travel that far, and not everyone can afford to take time off from work.
An increase in the number of patients seeking care in the Imperial Valley, she worried, will add new strain to an already-fragile system of care.
“We have to not just think about California just being blanketed, a blue state where people have unlimited access,” Price said. “There are still parts of California where this is an issue.”
Abortion care is also limited in other rural California communities like the Eastern Sierras.
The Arizona Supreme Court’s ruling last week makes abortion almost completely illegal by upholding a Civil War-era ban from before the region was even legally considered a state.
It is the latest state to strip away reproductive rights in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade in the summer of 2022. Fourteen other states have already almost completely outlawed abortion since that ruling, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The ruling doesn't take effect in Arizona until at least next week.
The decision is likely to face legal and administrative challenges. Arizona’s attorney general, Democrat Kris Mayes, has said that her office won’t prosecute medical providers who perform abortions or patients who seek abortion care. Abortion rights supporters are also hoping to get a measure on the November ballot that would amend the Arizona constitution to protect the procedure.
On Monday, Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest President and CEO Darrah DiGiorgio Johnson said in a statement that her organization was preparing for the fallout of the Arizona decision across Southern California. But she said it was still too soon to say how exactly the ruling would impact their services.
“We remain steadfast in our resolve to protect and expand access to safe and legal abortion care for all,” Johnson said.
Price is hopeful that the Planned Parenthood clinic in El Centro could also soon be fully back in action. Its services are currently more limited while it’s operating out of the temporary facility, but she said it’s possible that the clinic could reopen its main building as soon as this year.
