People in rural areas lack access to abortion clinics

Real quick: Costly regulations and smaller populations relative to urban areas have prevented any abortion providers from opening since one in State College closed after a series of scandals, Ashad Hajela reports.

A bit more: Even though abortion is legal in Pennsylvania, Abby Minor, a Penns Valley resident, said she was shocked by how difficult it was to have the procedure done during the summer of 2013.

She called local health providers around Centre County, but none of them were helpful, she said. They didn’t even tell her where she could get one.

An internet search revealed that one of the closest clinics was in Harrisburg. “It felt illegal,” she said. “What other medical thing are you suddenly on your own Googling for?”

Her partner, Kevin Sims, drove with her to Hillcrest Women’s Medical Center. It was scary when they pulled into the parking lot, Minor said. Protesters were yelling profanities and “abortion is murder,” she recalled. Others were praying. Sims said he was struck by the aggression of the protesters.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade left abortion access in the hands of the states. In Pennsylvania, abortion is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy.

But for people living in north-central Pennsylvania like Minor, it’s at least an hour drive to the closest abortion provider. And the reason lies in the state’s history of abortion restrictions, regulatory laws that make it difficult to financially sustain an abortion clinic in lower-population areas, and a series of troubles that led what was the region’s only provider to close in 2010.

The full story: Read more here.

Volunteer fire companies face many common stressors in funding and staffing. Is there strength in numbers if some choose to tackle the issues together?

That’s a central question five fire companies in Centre County’s Nittany Valley Region are asking, as they plan on participating in an upcoming pro-bono study by the state Department of Community and Economic Development. 

The companies — Logan and Undine fire companies in Bellefonte, Pleasant Gap Fire Company, Howard Fire Company, and Walker Township Fire Company — are run entirely by volunteers, like 90 percent of fire departments in Pennsylvania. That means they are independent organizations operating on their own, even though many receive taxpayer funding, and mutual aid agreements among companies are commonplace.

Over the past few decades, the business of volunteer fire companies has become harder to sustain. Volunteerism declined. Donations grew less reliable, and many traditional fundraising activities were paused during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. More stringent requirements deterred recruitment and retention. 

To some, including Floyd Wise, who worked in fire and rescue services in Harrisburg and is now a consultant for the DCED’s Regional Fire Services Assistance Program, fire companies can solve those challenges through better collaboration among neighboring departments and getting more support from local governments.

“Fire companies are one player in a big game,” Wise said last week, during a meeting with representatives from fire companies in the Nittany Valley Region. 

A new fire truck these days can cost upward of a million dollars, Wise said, meaning fire companies will need to budget years ahead to make such essential purchases. 

Costs are “only going to get higher,” he added. Wise said local governments will likely have to take on some of those financial responsibilities soon, which could mean tax increases. 

Fire companies must “deal with it collectively,” he said.

Wise will identify inefficiencies among each company, inconsistencies in policies governing them, and make improvement recommendations. 

Fire companies will ultimately decide whether to adopt any recommendations out of the study. 

While representatives said the economy of scale is an appealing aspect of a collaborative relationship, fire companies are reluctant to consider the more drastic potentials of a “regionalization” plan, like mergers and consolidations, because of logistical issues and the loss of individual company identities. 

“Relationships of sharing,” he said, are going to be crucial for many fire companies, but success can also come from better understanding of what it takes to run volunteer fire companies successfully within the communities they serve. 

— Min Xian, local accountability reporter