The only three clinics in Alabama that provide abortion care are considered essential businesses according to the Alabama Department of Public Health and will remain open amid the COVID-19 pandemic, despite efforts in other states to ban abortion procedures

Attorneys General in Texas and Ohio have ordered clinics in their states to halt abortions amid the COVID-19 crisis; identifying them as "not immediately medically necessary."

"No one is exempt from the governor's executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers,” Texas AG Ken Paxton said in a statement. “Those who violate the governor's order will be met with the full force of the law."

In Alabama, however, the statewide public health order does not require the full closure of any business, according to Arrol Sheehan, director of public information at the Alabama Department of Public Health.

“Even in Jefferson County, where ‘non-essential’ businesses have been ordered closed, clinics in general are still open as essential,” Sheehan said.

Chad Jackson, office manager at the West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa, said the clinic has received an influx of callers from Texas seeking appointments in Tuscaloosa, as well as from protesters threatening to report them to the health department for remaining open amidst the pandemic.

“We know that if women don't receive this procedure legally, they will search out ways to have a termination,” Jackson said. “And what’s frightening is we know that those places lead to women trying to do it themselves at homes.”

The clinic has set up a check-in station so patients can wait in their cars to be called in for their procedure. They also removed much of the furniture from inside the waiting room to make more room to discourage patients from gathering.

“Abortion clinics in Alabama are taking all necessary steps to protect the health of their patients, staff, and community while continuing to provide essential health care, in compliance with the State Public Health Officer's Order… ” said Randall Marshall, executive director

American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama. “The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health and well-being.”

According to a statement by the the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology abortion is an essential surgical procedure amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Abortion is an essential component of comprehensive health care,” ACOG said in the statement. “It is also a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible. The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person’s life, health, and well-being.”

Providing abortions during a global crisis is especially important, said Amanda Reyes, executive director of Yellowhammer Fund, a reproductive rights organization in Alabama.

“Like the medical professionals working diligently to provide this constitutionally protected service, we will continue to do everything in our power to make sure no one in Alabama is denied their human right to bodily autonomy,” Reyes said.

In addition to helping fund abortion in the South, Yellowhammer Fund is also offering free emergency contraceptives to people in Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alabama passed a law banning nearly all abortions in the state in May 2019, but a federal judge blocked the ban from going into affect until after a lawsuit brought on by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Alabama played out in the courts.

Alabama’s three abortion clinics are the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery and Alabama Women’s Center in Huntsville. In Alabama a patient must schedule an appointment at least 48 hours before both surgical and medical abortion procedures.