Scoop: Denver Health is providing abortions for first time in hospital history
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Denver Health Medical Center on Feb. 16. Photo: Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post via Getty Images
Denver Health — Colorado's oldest hospital and largest safety net provider — is offering abortion care for the first time in its 163-year history, Axios Denver has learned.
Why it matters: The move comes as Colorado clinicians are scrambling to handle the influx of out-of-state patients in the year after Roe v. Wade's reversal, and wait times for abortion appointments shoot up.
Details: Since Denver Health's new Reproductive Choice Clinic launched abortion services in early November, appointments have filled up every day they've been offered, clinic medical director and hospital physician Dr. Spencer McClelland tells us.
- The clinic, which currently operates one day a week, offers procedures through the 11th week of pregnancy.
- It charges $500 for both medication and procedural abortions, a number Denver Health deems "comparable to other service providers in the area."
Between the lines: Although patients aren't required to be Colorado residents, they are asked to first do a telehealth screening three days before an appointment to ensure they are located in the state to avoid legal concerns from other states, McClelland says.
What they're saying: Talks about providing abortion services at the hospital have been ongoing for nearly two years, but once "demand for abortion care skyrocketed" after the Dobbs decision, "we had to lean in," McClelland tells Axios.
- Over the last month and a half, it's become "very clear that there is the demand both from within our Denver Health patient community" and beyond it, he says.
Of note: Cobalt, a Colorado-based reproductive rights advocacy group, is giving financial assistance to people who need it. The organization reported this month that it quadrupled its financial support over the past two years for abortion seekers in Colorado.
- The Cobalt Abortion Fund, which is donor-funded, is projected to spend over $1 million this year, including roughly $600,000 in procedure funding for an estimated 2,000-plus clients.
- "At a time when abortion access has become more restricted … it's gratifying that a trusted community leader like Denver Health has stepped in to serve patients and help fill the additional need for abortion care," Karen Middleton, president of Cobalt, told Axios in a statement.
The other side: Colorado anti-abortion advocates are organizing to propose an initiative on the 2024 ballot that aims to criminalize the procedure.
- Will Duffy, president of Colorado Right to Life, called the hospital's decision "tragic and nothing to be celebrated."
- "The same tiny human beings in the womb that they refer to as a baby in one part of the hospital are now going to have their lives ended in a different area of the hospital," he told Axios in a statement.
By the numbers: Out-of-state patients at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains' clinics — which span Colorado, New Mexico and southern Nevada — have more than doubled post-Roe, the AP reported this month.
- Nationwide, 1 in 5 people who had an abortion in the first half of 2023 traveled out of state to receive care, according to a new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
The big picture: Colorado's Legislature and governor enacted several laws over the last year to protect reproductive rights, positioning the state as a safe-haven as others passed new restrictions.
What to watch: Denver Health is considering expanding its abortion care services from just one day a week, but more space and health care providers will need to be locked down first, McClelland says.
Go deeper: How much abortion increased in Colorado in the year post-Dobbs
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comments Will Duffy with Colorado Right to Life.