Where do women in Middle Georgia go for abortions? It's hard to say

If a woman in Middle Georgia wants a legal abortion, she faces a nearly impossible time having the procedure in Bibb County.

Or having it anywhere that doesn’t involve at least a two-hour drive and a host of logistical nightmares.

Overcoming this is a big reason Summit Medical Centers plans to open a low-cost women’s health facility offering abortions at 833 Walnut St. in Macon this fall. But even once it opens, women face controversy, as protesters vow to be watching closely and objecting loudly.

Currently, nine specialized facilities in all of Georgia offer legal abortions.

Depending on where you live, the closest could be in Columbus or south of Atlanta. That means traveling at least two hours, if there’s no traffic. And then arriving and finding a parking space. And dodging protesters.

If the woman already has a child, it means finding a babysitter or day care, said Tanya Little, executive director of Summit’s Georgia and Michigan offices. “It’s an absolute hardship,” she said.

Six of the legal abortion facilities are in the Atlanta area, and one each in Augusta, Columbus and Savannah, according to the National Abortion Federation.

More than 7,000 abortions from women in Bibb and its surrounding counties took place 2012-2016, the latest statistics available, according to a Georgia Department of Public Health website. The largest number of abortions, 3,566, were from women in Houston County, followed by 2,670 from Bibb County.

In addition to offering first trimester-only abortion care, the Summit facility would offer other gynecological services including pap smears, vaccines, contraceptive implants and devices and other medical procedures, according the application.

Patients would be counseled on pregnancy options and provided adoption and parental care referrals.

Summit's Atlanta facility sees "quite a bit of folks from the Macon, Warner Robins area," Little said.

Statewide, more than 30,000 abortions were performed in Georgia in 2014, the latest year available, and of those nearly 3,500 were for women who lived out of state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An abortion in Georgia can only be performed after "voluntary and informed consent of the female" at least 24 hours before the abortion except in a medical emergency, according to the state public health site. A parent or guardian must be notified if the woman seeking an abortion is under 18.

As of 2014, 96 percent of Georgia counties had no facilities that provided abortions, said Barbara Ann Luttrell, Planned Parenthood Southeast Inc. of Atlanta’s director of communication and marketing.

"So, obviously, there is a real need for additional comprehensive reproductive health access — particularly in rural places in Georgia, and in other rural parts of the South, there are access issues and transportation issues," she said.

Protests planned

Once Summit opens, though, just getting to the facility won’t be easy.

Last week, the Saint Maximilian Kolbe Center for Life led a protest of about 100 people in front of the proposed center. The Kolbe Center plans to have someone protesting there from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. beginning this week.

"My biggest issue (with the facility) is abortion," said Ann Beall, The Kolbe Center director. "We are a Catholic organization, so we do not advocate any kind of contraception. ... Any abortion is murdering a child."

The group plans to have a march beginning at noon June 15 from Rosa Parks Square to the facility "with even larger numbers."

If the center opens, Beall said she plans to work with the national Sidewalk Advocates for Life organization to have “trained advocates on the sidewalk and in the public right of way.”

“No one is condemning the woman going in,” she said. “We are just trying to offer them, in a respectful way as possible, an alternative. … Our goal is to get to them, and not as they walk out of their cars attack them kind of thing. … We just give them the opportunity to have a conversation before they go in.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2018 at 4:01 PM with the headline "Where do women in Middle Georgia go for abortions? It's hard to say."