Opinion ID: 746244
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: National Market for Abortion-Related Services

Text: 37 Congress found that doctors travel across state lines to provide abortion services and that patients also travel interstate to obtain such services. S.Rep. No. 103-117, at 31 (1993) ([M]any of the patients who seek services from these facilities engage in interstate commerce by traveling from one state to obtain services in another.); H. Rep. No. 103-306, at 8 (1993) (Many of the counties that have providers are urban centers. A rural provider is often the only provider in a large geographical area.... The facts are that only 17 percent of U.S. counties have an abortion provider and that clinic owners face a shortage of doctors willing to perform abortions.), reprinted in 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. 699, 705. Indeed, it is the very shortage of abortion-related services that appears to have created the national market for these services. See S. Rep. at 17 & n. 29 (The availability of abortion services is already very limited in many parts of the United States. Nationwide, 83% of counties have no abortion provider. In South Dakota, the only physician who performs abortions commutes from Minnesota.). 38 The House and Senate reports accurately reflect the testimony presented to the respective committees. See Abortion Clinic Violence: Hearings Before the Subcomm. on Crime and Criminal Justice of the Comm. on the Judiciary, 103d Cong., at 3 (1993) [hereinafter House Hearings ] (letter of Atty. Gen. Reno) (stating that patients and staff frequently travel interstate to receive or to administer abortion-related services); The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1993: Hearing Before the Comm. on Labor and Human Resources, 103d Cong., at 11, 16-17 (1993) [hereinafter Senate Hearings ] (statement of Atty. Gen. Reno) (stating that abortion clinics are engaged in interstate commerce and that clinics serve significant numbers of out-of-state patients); id. at 59, 64-65 (statement of Willa Craig, Executive Director, Blue Mountain Clinic, Missoula, MT) (A large number of our abortion and our prenatal patients travel an average of 120 miles to their appointments at our clinic due to a lack of services in their own areas. These areas include Idaho, eastern Washington, Wyoming and Canada.); see also 139 Cong. Rec. S15, 658 (daily ed. Nov. 16, 1993) (statement of Sen. Kennedy) (noting the nationwide shortage of abortion-related services). 39