So Kermit Gosnell is a scary dude, but lack of healthcare access for women of color is scary too.

Erin Grant wrote on Gosnell and access to healthcare for women of color for RH Reality Check. I’m not getting into the accusations about the left ignoring Gosnell, because these accusations aren’t true. Read feminist reporters. The end. The only reason people are paying attention now is because Gosnell’s trial has started. Grant points out that Gosnell has been covered and the coverage continues, but what is lacking is a discussion around abortion care for low-income women of color who feel they don’t have any place to turn.

Many people have written about Gosnell starting in February 2010, when his clinic was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration and his license was suspended. Now Gosnell is on trial for a variety of things including the death of at least one woman and I think I read 7 viable fetuses/children.

Just to be clear, this is what abortion is going to look like if the anti-choice movement wins. States like North Dakota, Kansas, and Mississippi where their last remaining clinics are under threat of being shut down (though Mississippi was granted a reprieve).

Gosnell’s clinic “Women’s Medical Society” was surrounded by respected hospitals and clinics. These hospitals and clinics provide safe access and abortions, but Gosnell’s clinic provided an illegal service. His assistants were untrained and the abortions were performed without medical cause. Additionally, I heard he wasn’t a doctor or trained to perform abortions. The clinic was dirty and unsanitary.

Gosnell charged a “sliding scale” for anesthesia so the poorer you are the more pain you suffer. So the women who went to Gosnell’s clinic either couldn’t afford safe abortion care or they were beyond the legal time limit. In 2011, the Grand Jury report said, “We think the reason no one acted is because this women in question were poor and of color.” Most of Gosnell’s patients were poor and of color, but the media isn’t talking about race and class in conjunction with out Gosnell’s clinic was able to thrive. Of course, now these poor and uninsured women who lack access to healthcare are the subject of pity from the anti-choice groups and public pity in general because abortions are involved. I agree with Grant that this is a problem. These women need access to high quality comprehensive healthcare, but no one seems to care about that.

However, Gosnell proves what pro-choice advocates have known for a while: “Women who need to terminate a pregnancy will go to desperate lengths to do so, and by isolating abortion care, we drive women to back-alley providers.”

Anti-choice conservatives don’t care about this, Mississippi State Rep. Lester Carpenter (R-Burnsville) said, “[Y]ou have the other side. They’re like, ‘Well, the poor pitiful women that can’t afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them [abortions] at home with a coat hanger.’ That’s what we’ve heard over and over. But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what you’ve decided to do.” (Pulled from MaddowBog).

Just to be clear, his is banking on morals to prevent women access to safe healthcare. Fuck him and his “morals”. At this point there are 13 freestanding providers of surgical abortion in Pennsylvania, which is down from 22 two years ago. Legitimate clinics are being closed because of regulations that have nothing to do with providing safe service, but instead they aim to outlaw abortions. There aren’t any clinics in the 205 miles between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

Grant points out the people who normally protest her clinic are not emboldened to go to the Senate floor saying “save women’s lives,” but nothing is being said or done to provide low-income women with high quality healthcare including abortion. People like Gosnell are able to prey on the poor because the poor have a lack of options. Until the poor are provided good healthcare these monsters will continue to target the poor. Grant concludes with this: “This is the gray area of abortion that no one wants to talk about: the women we cannot see for services, the women who we have never seen for services, and the women who are receiving abortions that are not counted by anyone. There is a deafening silence alright: A silence that ignores the daily plight of the under insured and under-served women living in poverty.”

Something needs to be done, and it isn’t eliminating legal and safe abortions. Get ready Arkansas, North Dakota, Kansas, and Mississippi (though you’ve dodged the bullet this week).