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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, July 7, 2022
In rural West, more worries about access to abortion
By CLAIRE RUSH
Associated Press
In Bend, the sole Planned
Parenthood clinic serving
the eastern half of the state
is bracing for an influx of
patients, particularly from
neighboring Idaho, where
a trigger law banning most
abortions is expected to take
effect this summer.
“We’ve already started
hiring,” said Joanna Den-
nis-Cook, the Bend Health
Center manager.
Across the West, many
abortion providers serv-
ing rural areas were already
struggling to meet demand
in a vast region where staff-
ing shortages and long
travel distances are barri-
ers to reproductive services
for women. Oregon alone is
larger geographically than
the entire United Kingdom.
Some facilities serving
rural communities in states
where abortion remains
legal worry those preexist-
ing challenges could be fur-
ther compounded by the
overturning of Roe v. Wade,
as more patients travel from
states where the procedure is
banned or greatly restricted.
Anticipating an abortion
ban in Idaho, Oregon law-
makers earlier this year cre-
ated a $15 million fund to
increase access to abortion
services.
Northwest
Abortion
Access Fund, a nonprofit
that helps patients pay for
travel and the procedure
itself, has been tapped to
receive the first $1 million.
The nonprofit has worked
with the Bend clinic for 20
years, and they are collabo-
rating to meet the needs of a
growing number of patients.
Andrew Selsky/AP Photo
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Bend is bracing for an influx of patients, particularly from neighboring Idaho, where a trigger
law banning most abortions is expected to take effect this summer following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Dennis-Cook said her
clinic is providing additional
training for staff and modi-
fying schedules “to ensure
that we can accommodate
increases in patient num-
bers” as more people travel
farther for care.
Before the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned Roe v.
Wade, 20% of U.S. women
already had to travel at least
42 miles to reach the near-
est abortion clinic, accord-
ing to 2014 data analyzed
by the Guttmacher Institute,
a research group that sup-
ports abortion rights, which
published its findings in
The Lancet Public Health.
Across much of eastern Ore-
gon, that distance can jump
to nearly 180 miles. As more
states move to enact trigger
bans on abortion, distances
could increase further for
many patients.
Dennis-Cook said the
Bend Health Center has
been seeing patients coming
from as far away as Texas.
Bend’s clinic has six
exam rooms and receives
about 600 visits per month.
As it is “on the smaller side,”
Dennis-Cook said it is lim-
ited in what it can provide.
“We only do first trimes-
ter procedures here,” she
explained. She added the
clinic can’t do procedures
involving general anesthe-
sia. “We don’t have a pleth-
ora of nurses who can do
that type of work to draw
from,” she said.
Smaller abortion clin-
ics, particularly ones in rural
areas, have historically grap-
pled with shortages of staff
and doctors who can per-
form the procedure. This
in turn affects scheduling
availability.
Amid growing demand
for travel funds, the North-
west Abortion Access Fund
has already exhausted its
planned operating budgets
for this year, according to
Riley Keane, a practical sup-
port lead for the group.
“Last year, we gave away
about $1 million all told,”
Keane explained, refer-
ring to grants given to clin-
ics to cover abortion costs
and travel funds provided to
patients. She said this year
the nonprofit is “on track to
double that potentially.”
Keane expects the $1
million from Oregon’s new
abortion access fund will
make “a huge difference”
for the nonprofit, which
normally relies on individ-
ual donors. She said this
year marks the first time the
group is receiving govern-
ment money.
The nonprofit said it is
concerned about provid-
ing travel funds to patients
in states where abortion is
banned or greatly restricted,
but added it is working with
legal professionals to assess
the shifting landscape.
“They keep us up to date
on things we need to be con-
cerned about,” Keane said.
In response to laws such
as those passed in Texas
allowing private individuals
to sue abortion providers, the
governors of Oregon, Wash-
ington state and California
announced a joint commit-
ment to protect patients and
doctors “against judicial and
local law enforcement coop-
eration with out-of-state
investigations, inquiries and
arrests.”
The three Democratic
governors also said they will
refuse “extradition of indi-
viduals for criminal prose-
cution” for receiving or sup-
porting abortion services
that are legal in their states.
The Northwest Abortion
Access Fund service region
includes Oregon, Washing-
ton state Idaho and Alaska.
Keane said the nonprofit
will continue its work for
now. “Currently, our legal
advisers haven’t told us that
we need to stop operating,”
she said.
Lawsuit seeks removal of Oregon ranch’s private irrigation dam
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Operators of an Ore-
gon ranch fear its irriga-
tion supply is under threat
from an Endangered Spe-
cies Act lawsuit alleging its
dam blocks upstream fish
migration.
WaterWatch of Oregon,
an environmental nonprofit,
has filed a federal complaint
accusing Q Bar X Ranch of
unlawfully harming threat-
ened salmon by operating its
Pomeroy Dam near Kerby.
The lawsuit seeks an
injunction requiring the
ranch’s owners to either
remove the dam or install a
fish passage that meets state
and federal regulations.
“The Pomeroy Dam is
a passage impediment and
hazard for migrating adult
and juvenile southern Ore-
gon Coast coho on the Illi-
nois River,” the plaintiff
claims.
All the ranch’s irrigation
water is drawn from the res-
ervoir above the dam, which
it primarily needs for grass
hay, according to a mem-
ber of the ranch family who
refused to be named.
Losing that water would
be “devastating” to the
ranch, whose owners may
Rick Swart/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Coho salmon in an Oregon creek.
not find an alternative source
of irrigation, he said. “We’ll
cross that bridge if we come
to it,” he said.
Pomeroy
Dam
has
existed since the 1940s but
its removal has recently
become an objective for the
environmental group, the
family member said.
“They just really don’t
want to have any dams,” he
said. “I don’t see the logic of
it.”
The Oregon Farm Bureau
isn’t directly involved in the
lawsuit but is concerned the
case may represent a new
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
litigation strategy for Water-
Watch, said Mary Anne
Cooper, the farm bureau’s
vice president of govern-
ment affairs.
“I think this will be
another tool in Water-
Watch’s toolbox,” she said.
“From a precedent stand-
point, we will definitely be
paying attention to the case.”
The lawsuit may be a
foreboding sign for other
irrigators who rely on pri-
vate water impoundments,
Cooper said. “You can get
hauled in and even if the
lawsuit is baseless, you can
SUNDAY
MONDAY
have to spend hundreds of
thousands of dollars proving
that,” she said.
According to Water-
Watch, the structure vio-
lates the Endangered Spe-
cies
Act’s
prohibition
against “take” of protected
fish. That includes kill-
ing them or harming them
through “significant habitat
modification.”
“The passage impediment
and dam hazards impede
migration and spawning as
well as causing direct harm
to southern Oregon Coast
coho,” the complaint said.
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Apart from preventing
salmon from reaching about
100 miles of “high-quality
spawning and rearing hab-
itat,” the dam has raised
water temperatures to their
detriment, the complaint
said.
The dam has created
“pool conditions” that
increase predation on juve-
nile salmon, the complaint
said. Meanwhile, “inade-
quate screening” of the irri-
gation diversion causes
adult fish to get stranded and
die in irrigation canals and
ditches.
Upstream fish passage
past Pomeroy Dam is a top
priority for state wildlife reg-
ulators, but the ranch owners
have rejected the plaintiff’s
offer to remove the barrier
for no charge, according to
the lawsuit.
“WaterWatch’s experi-
ence with reaching out to
defendants causes Water-
Watch to be concerned that
defendants will refuse and
fail to respond to this com-
plaint and/or to any order
of this court to remove or
fix the Pomeroy Dam,” the
plaintiff said.
If the ranch owners don’t
fix the impediment them-
selves, the environmental
group wants a court order
allowing its representatives
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
68 56
Partly sunny
69 55
69 57
Rather cloudy
Partly sunny
71 56
73 58
Pleasant with
Sunny and nice
some sun
73 58
70 56
Abundant
sunshine
Variable
cloudiness
Aberdeen
Olympia
69/56
73/56
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Tuesday
Tonight’s Sky: First quarter
moon.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 67/51
Normal high/low .................. 67/53
Record high .................. 93 in 1908
Record low .................... 43 in 1932
Precipitation
Tuesday ................................... 0.01”
Month to date ........................ 0.01”
Normal month to date ......... 0.18”
Year to date .......................... 42.58”
Normal year to date ........... 37.35”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Time
7:42 a.m.
8:11 p.m.
5.5 2:00 a.m.
7.5 1:42 p.m.
Cape Disappointment
7:17 a.m.
7:57 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 5:32 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 9:09 p.m.
Moonrise today ............. 2:23 p.m.
Moonset today ............... 1:06 a.m.
First
Full
Last
New
7:31 a.m.
8:08 p.m.
Warrenton
7:37 a.m.
8:06 p.m.
Knappa
8:19 a.m.
8:48 p.m.
Depoe Bay
July 6 July 13 July 20 July 28
6:32 a.m.
7:11 p.m.
1.9
1.4
5.3 1:26 a.m.
7.4 1:03 p.m.
2.1
1.6
5.7 1:42 a.m.
7.7 1:23 p.m.
2.1
1.6
5.9 1:44 a.m.
7.9 1:26 p.m.
2.0
1.5
5.8 3:01 a.m.
7.8 2:43 p.m.
1.6
1.2
5.3 12:56 a.m. 2.1
7.5 12:26 p.m. 1.5
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Today
Hi/Lo/W
92/77/t
79/65/pc
82/68/t
103/83/pc
84/61/pc
87/75/s
98/78/s
82/63/s
90/80/t
82/69/pc
107/85/pc
70/58/pc
83/74/t
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
93/77/t
81/66/c
80/64/t
105/83/s
94/66/pc
87/75/s
100/80/s
84/62/s
90/79/t
82/70/t
110/87/s
72/56/s
85/72/t
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
78/56
Kennewick Walla Walla
85/61 Lewiston
91/63
86/63
Hermiston
The Dalles 91/63
Enterprise
Pendleton 80/53
86/60
84/62
La Grande
82/56
78/57
NATIONAL CITIES
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
Pullman
85/55
74/56
Salem
81/60
Yakima 86/59
Longview
68/56 Portland
79/60
Spokane
83/61
74/53
73/52
Astoria
ALMANAC
to access the property and
remove the dam.
“WaterWatch has exten-
sive experience with obtain-
ing funding and working
with expert contractors on
dam removal throughout
Oregon,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit also seeks
compensation for the non-
profit’s litigation expenses.
Traditionally,
Water-
Watch has focused on dis-
putes over water rights and
other aspects of state water
law, Cooper said.
The challenge to Pome-
roy Dam’s legality was filed
in federal court, which may
indicate the organization is
turning toward Endangered
Species Act claims, she
said. Several years ago, the
group also partnered with
the Earthjustice nonprofit
law firm in an irrigation-re-
lated lawsuit over the Ore-
gon spotted frog.
The lawsuit against Q
Bar X ranch is also notewor-
thy because it’s filed against
a private landowner, rather
than an irrigation project
with a federal nexus, Coo-
per said.
“It’s much less common
to see a direct take allega-
tion against a private diver-
sion,” she said. “It’s not
totally unprecedented but it
is uncommon.”
Corvallis
76/54
Albany
77/54
John Day
Eugene
Bend
78/55
77/50
86/52
Ontario
97/68
Caldwell
Burns
88/49
94/64
Medford
85/59
Klamath Falls
81/46
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
83/52/s
62/53/c
67/56/pc
76/57/pc
63/54/pc
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
82/50/s
63/55/pc
69/57/c
81/55/pc
63/52/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
66/55/c
79/57/c
69/55/pc
78/55/c
77/58/pc
Fri.
Hi/Lo/W
66/54/pc
82/56/pc
71/55/c
82/53/pc
79/58/pc