
Suite 7
Special | 6m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
A nurse practitioner navigates serving rural women in a post-Roe world.
It isn’t easy for women in rural Utah to get healthcare —a reality that Danielle Pendergrass grew up with. Today, she runs a clinic in Price, Utah, that provides care to women from hundreds of miles around. But in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, Danielle now must navigate how to serve her community while facing an uncertain future.
RadioWest Films on PBS Utah is a local public television program presented by PBS Utah

Suite 7
Special | 6m 47sVideo has Closed Captions
It isn’t easy for women in rural Utah to get healthcare —a reality that Danielle Pendergrass grew up with. Today, she runs a clinic in Price, Utah, that provides care to women from hundreds of miles around. But in the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, Danielle now must navigate how to serve her community while facing an uncertain future.
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Danielle: So Price is an interesting little place in Utah It goes way back to how we were settled.
Over 52 different nationalities came to live and work in Price in the coal mines and railroads and everything else.
It's just a beautiful area where people come together and really show up for one another.
Being a teenage girl, we didn't have access to contraceptive or reproductive care here.
Our older friends who are now in college at the U where life's like, "Oh, there's a Planned Parenthood right up here."
So we would all lie to our parents tell them we were going wherever hop in a friend's car pile in, drive two hours and a half up one of the 10 most deadliest canyons in the United States, my parents would die.
And then we would all go up there and get our birth control, get STI testing.
Back then they did pap smears.
We'd go through the whole rigmarole just to make sure we were all okay.
And it was at that time I met a women's health nurse practitioner and she told me what she did and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, this is this is what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna start a women's health clinic in Price.
I am that's what I'm going to do.
That's what I'm going to do for my life."
"Hi Nayla!
How are you?"
"What's going on?"
Patient: "I think that I've been having like some kind of like panic attacks sometimes."
Danielle: Talk to me like what's causing them?
What are you stressed about?
What's going on that way ... We provide care for the entire woman.
Patient: It was the only sexual experience that I've ever had that made that week or experience worth it or any of the other things.
[sad laughter] Been really stressed out and I, I've noticed if stressed on it I start to ... Danielle: Everything from sleep, to exercise, sexual health issues, what's your stress levels like, how's your mental health, what's going on with wor your family life?
Patient: I take care of my kids, I take care of my mom .. Danielle: You name it.
If women have it we're seeing them for it Patient: ...and I have not taken care of myself Danielle: Right?
And that's what we do as women we take care of everybody else first.
I listen a lot.
And I learn so much.
The role that I play in the lives of women in these rural counties is I'm really a soft place to land.
We really try to create the time and space for women to actually sit down and take care of themselves.
We knew that the decision to overturn Roe versus Wade was coming.
It really just felt like you knew somebody who was terminally ill and very close to you and was like a big part of your world was going to die and you're just waiting for it.
There's only two places in which a woman can get an abortion in the state of Utah.
Those are both in Salt Lake City.
And if a woman from our area had to go and access an abortion, it's it's two hours one way and then the procedure in that time and then two hours or more back.
You move to Emery County, you add another hour.
You move to Grand County, you add another hour.
It's really hard.
Honestly, I don't know what it's like.
But I can imagine starting up that canyon and all the emotions a woman may be feeling.
What's the procedure going to be like?
Is it going to hurt?
Am I going to be okay after?
What if somebody finds out what if somebody knows I left town?
What if whoever's driving me tells someone?
What now is, you know, how do we take care of the people who really need this type of care?
Rural women are so important to me because I'm a rural woman.
Breathe deeply.
Being in that moment, with whoever is in front of me, it's very special.
And it's one of the things that brings me great joy in what I do.
I feel like we're ready.
As ready as we can be.
And now you just got to sit here and watch things unfold and hope for the best.
Patient: Thank you.
Danielle: You are so welcome.
Patient: I really appreciate it.
Only good things to come.
Only good things to come.
RadioWest Films on PBS Utah is a local public television program presented by PBS Utah