The Vermont Right to Life Committee is bracing for what they believe will be an increase in abortions in the state after decades of decline, thanks to Planned Parenthood. According to Vermont Right to Life, in the mid-1980s, over 3,000 abortions were performed annually in the state. By 2013 that number had dropped to 1,214 with Planned Parenthood accounting for about 900 of them.
In 2011, New Hampshire passed a parental notification law requiring abortion clinics to notify a parent before providing an abortion to a minor girl. Because of this, Planned Parenthood began making plans to move their Lebanon, New Hampshire clinic right over the border into White River Junction, Vermont.
The move will allow this Planned Parenthood clinic to return to providing abortions to any girl, regardless of her age, without parental consent.
According to Vermont Right to Life, the White River Junction clinic provides chemical abortions up to 10 weeks gestation and surgical abortions up to 12 weeks and 6 days gestation. Planned Parenthood now has 12 locations in Vermont, making up more than half of the Planned Parenthood of New England locations which are located throughout Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.