Urgent Care Clinics Fill Abortion Care Gaps in Rural Michigan

MARQUETTE, Mich. — Providing abortions was the last thing Shawn Brown thought she’d be doing when she opened an urgent care clinic in this remote town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

But she also wasn’t expecting the Planned Parenthood in Marquette to shut down last spring. Roughly 1,100 patients relied on that clinic each year for cancer screenings, IUD insertions, and medication abortions.

Now the area has no other in-person resource for abortions. “It’s a 500-mile stretch of no access,” Brown said.

So the doctor, who describes herself as “individually pro-life,” added medication abortions to Marquette Medical Urgent Care’s already busy practice, which treats a steady flow of kids with the flu, college students with migraines, and tourists with skiing injuries. At least 38 abortion clinics shut down last year in states where they’re still legal, according to data collected by I Need an A , a project supported by a number of nonprofits that helps people find abortion options.

Even states that recently passed constitutional amendments protecting abortion rights, such as Michigan, have had clinics close since the U.S.