The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis may be winding down, but medical providers say a lasting impact of the operation has been scores of individuals skipping abortion-related care and other reproductive health services.
“There is just a tremendous sense of fear in this moment,” Ruth Richardson, CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, told 19th News last week.
“Everyone is concerned,” she added. “Our patients are concerned. Our staff is also concerned.”
Since December 1, the organization’s clinics in Minnesota have seen their no-show rate spike by more than 8 percent, according to data provided to the outlet. Those who missed appointments were disproportionately seeking family planning services, which include contraception, wellness visits, cancer screening and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
Another local provider, the Our Justice abortion fund, told the outlet it had gotten 82 requests for funding this January, down from 131 the previous January.
While health advocates emphasize that abortion is a safe procedure, delaying care can add unneeded expense, complication, and risks.
Medical providers of all kinds say that the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities has been disrupting medical care.
“Our places of healing are under siege,” Dr. Roli Dwivedi, the former president of the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians, said during a January press conference at the state Capitol.
“I have been a practicing physician for more than 19 years here in Minnesota, and I have never seen this level of chaos and fear.”
At the press conference, doctors shared stories of patients missing follow-up appointments or avoiding care entirely for fear of being detained.
A resident of Portland, Oregon, told NPR that in January ICE agents arrested her friends, a family of Venezuelan asylum seekers, as they sat in the parking lot of an urgent care facility where their 7-year-old was meant to get treatment for a serious nosebleed. The family was later taken to a detention center in Texas, the friend said.
The Trump administration also shares Medicaid data like address and ethnicity with immigration officials, which health experts say is keeping others from seeking care.
“If hospitals tell people that their Emergency Medicaid information will be shared with ICE, it is foreseeable that many immigrants would simply stop getting emergency medical treatment,” Leonardo Cuello, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, told health news site KFF. “Half of the Emergency Medicaid cases are for the delivery of U.S. citizen babies. Do we want these mothers avoiding the hospital when they go into labor?”
Last year, the Trump administration announced immigration agencies could make arrests at sensitive locations like medical facilities, churches, and schools, ending a policy that had been in effect for over a decade.
“ICE does not conduct enforcement at hospitals—period,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent. “We would only go into a hospital if there were an active danger to public safety.”
“Of course, if we have a detainee we need to take to the hospital for medical care, we have officers accompany them for their monitoring, safety of the staff, and the public,” she added.
Providers at other sensitive locations report similar fears.
Thousands of students have avoided going to class during the Trump administration’s deportation campaign, while parents have been arrested near schools in at least 10 states.
The Trump administration also regularly arrests individuals making what were previously sanctioned appearances before authorities at courthouses and other government buildings.
