When the only abortion provider in Michigan’s rural Upper Peninsula closed, a local urgent care clinic decided to fill the gap. It is now offering early abortion services — and other clinics across Michigan are considering similar moves as brick-and-mortar reproductive health facilities continue to close even in blue states where abortion remains legal.

The shift is partly logistical and partly ideological. Urgent care facilities have the clinical capacity for medication abortion and some procedural services. They are already embedded in communities that lack specialty providers. And they are, in many areas, the only medical option within reasonable distance.