Regions Hospital’s announcement that it will be closing down its GYN Special Services Clinic won’t have a huge impact on the ability to obtain an abortion in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota.  With less than 600 abortions performed at the clinic in the last year, the numbers were by far eclipsed by other clinics providing abortion care.

Still, the closure is a reminder that once, abortions were considered to be a standard part of gynecological care.  Now, instead, it’s seen as a fringe treatment removed from the health care industry and annexed into a separate provider.

Even the hospital staff seem to view it that way.  Via the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Regions officials said the closing is consistent with other actions in recent years. It has moved some clinical care away from the hospital to make access easier for patients, and stopped other services that are available elsewhere, as it did two years ago with bariatric weight-reduction surgery.

Regions will continue to provide abortions to “high-risk” women who would require hospitalization after the procedure, as do other hospitals in the state.