After Nashville's only provider suspends abortions, Knoxville clinics brace for displaced patients

When Nashville's last remaining abortion provider ceased offering abortions this week, Knoxville clinics knew they'd get referrals.

And Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi, which operated the North Nashville clinic that it says has "temporarily" ceased to perform abortions because of a provider shortage, has been referring some patients to Knoxville, which has two of the state's six remaining abortion providers.

One is Planned Parenthood's Knoxville Health Center on Cherry Street in East Knoxville, which Aimee Lewis, the organization's vice president of external affairs, said has "recently hired new physicians" and can now offer abortions more days of the week.

But the Planned Parenthood Knoxville Health Center offers abortions only through medication, not surgical abortions. Planned Parenthood provides "medical abortions," using a combination of drugs to induce miscarriage, only to women whose pregnancies are 10 weeks or less. The Knoxville Health Center is not equipped for surgical abortions and has no plans to provide them at this time, Lewis said.

The only Knoxville clinic to provide surgical abortions is Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health, which said in a statement it's already getting calls from Nashville-area women and has added extra days to accommodate more patients, even as it hopes the Nashville Planned Parenthood will again begin providing medical and surgical abortions.

"Nashville has such a huge population ... there really needs to be a provider in Nashville," the statement said. Though the lack of one is "an unexpected event ... we're here for the patients who need us."

The independent nonprofit center in Fort Sanders offers birth control and gynecological services, in addition to medical and surgical abortions, and said even with the closure of the city's only other provider of surgical abortions — Volunteer Women's Medical Clinic, which closed in 2012 — the number of women seeking abortions has declined in recent years.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a decline in the number of abortions since at least 2006. In 2015, the most recent national data available, women in their 20s accounted for the majority of abortions, and more than 90 percent of abortions were performed before the 13th week of pregnancy. Fewer than 2 percent were performed at more than 21 weeks.

In upper East Tennessee, Bristol Regional Women's Center performs medical and surgical abortions, and three clinics in Memphis — one operated by Planned Parenthood — continue to provide abortions.