The West Wendover City Council on Tuesday halted plans for an abortion clinic just two hours from Salt Lake City (Scott G. Winterton, Deseret News)
WEST WENDOVER, Nev. — An effort by Planned Parenthood to open a health clinic in the border city of West Wendover is running up against local politics, as city officials declined to grant a necessary permit based on opposition to abortion.
The proposed clinic would have been the closest out-of-state abortion provider to Salt Lake City, and in a city that is already a weekend destination for Utahns thanks to Nevada’s liquor and gambling laws.
West Wendover Mayor Jasie Holm said the rural city, with a population just shy of 4,500 in 2021, is in dire need of basic health care, with many residents regularly making the nearly two-hour drive to Salt Lake City for routine appointments.
Planned Parenthood Mar Monte — which serves patients throughout central California and northern Nevada — proposed to help fill the gap by opening a full primary care clinic on one of the city’s main thoroughfares. Although Planned Parenthood is known nationally for providing abortion care, Planned Parenthood Mar Monte representatives said the regional organization specializes in rural medicine and would provide a broad range of care to residents in West Wendover.
Abortion is legal in Nevada up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, but only licensed physicians can provide the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute. So while citizens took strong stances as to the morality of abortions, the decision before the council was only to approve or deny a clinic that would offer services that are legal in the state.