Since 2010, half of the abortion clinics in Ohio have closed. But a recent report on NPR’s website tells the story of Dr. David Burkons, a doctor going in a different direction.
Dr. Burkons has been practicing obstetrics and gynecology since 1973 and he opened a clinic in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in early 2014 to offer abortions to women administered by medical pills.
This summer, he was granted the approval to add surgical abortions to his services.
The abortion clinic scene is one that is constantly changing in the U.S. The Associated Press concludes that the practice has fallen 12 percent across the United States from 2010 to January 2015.
Despite this, Dr. Burkons’ views his work as rewarding and as answering a need that some women have.
“Nobody grows up saying, ‘I’m planning on having an abortion,’ ” he is quoted as saying to NPR. “And they just assume that if it does happen, someone will be here.”
Dr. Burkons’ choice to open in a time of closures reflects the ongoing conflict in the US over whether women should be allowed to obtain abortions or not, and whether the morality of such a decision should be left up to the law or to the individual.
NPR states that Burkons performed 16 surgical abortions in three days when the clinic first opened. While many clinic closures have happened in recent years, Mike Gonidakis, who leads Ohio Right to Life, says that broader bills that propose stopping abortion
“We believe in an incremental approach to both the legislative side as well as the changing [of] hearts and minds,” Gonidakis is quoted as saying on NPR’s site.
Including Burkon’s clinic, there are currently nine abortion clinics operating in the state of Ohio.
According to an article on Bloomberg QuickTake, abortion clinics have been thinning since the late 1980s in America.
This could be a reflection of the success of a slow creep of increased legislation, as indicated by Gonidakis, that has been put in place in recent years making it tougher for clinics to be approved to offer surgical services.
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