Manhattan Planned Parenthood Will Stop Offering Abortions After 20 Weeks

Planned Parenthood announced this week that its only Manhattan clinic would stop performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a significant shift in a state that has maintained and even expanded access to abortion in the two years since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure.

The clinic, Planned Parenthood’s Manhattan Health Center, can no longer afford the “deep sedation” required to perform abortions beyond the 20-week mark, Wendy Stark, the president of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said in an interview.

The move was the latest sign of financial struggles for Planned Parenthood’s New York chapter, which also plans to close four clinics around the state, including its sole clinic on Staten Island, Ms. Stark said. The chapter has already instituted executive pay cuts and consolidated job functions.

Ms. Stark confirmed that the Manhattan clinic plans to stop providing abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy on Sept. 3, a change that was first reported by The City. Abortion is legal in New York State through the 24th week of pregnancy, and later in cases where a fetus is not viable or a woman’s life or health is at risk.

The Manhattan Health Center, located downtown on Bleecker Street, is currently the only Planned Parenthood clinic in New York that performs abortions after 20 weeks. Less than 2 percent of all of the abortions performed at the chapter’s clinics occur after that benchmark, according to a spokeswoman, Senti Sojwal.

While other abortion providers in New York will still offer the procedure after 20 weeks, the decision by Planned Parenthood was worrisome news to those tracking abortion access across the country.