The flashing sign outside the Sumter County Health Department advertises family planning services every Wednesday. That means birth control and STD testing. It’s one of the few places in rural Sumter County where women can get birth control, and it’s available for free.
But the lines there can be long and the wait time can take two hours or more, said KiErra Bailey, 22. Earlier this month she graduated from the University of West Alabama, just down the road from the health department.
“People in the cities don’t know what it’s like to drive 45 minutes to get the healthcare you want,” she said.
The nearest OBGYN is about an hour north, in Tuscaloosa, or 45 minutes west over the state line, in Meridian, Miss.
Tuscaloosa is also home to one of the state’s three remaining abortion clinics.
A look at the data shows that families in Black Belt counties like Sumter will likely be the ones most impacted by the nation’s strictest abortion law.