Planned Parenthood announced that it will launch a mobile abortion clinic in southern Illinois later this year to serve patients from border states that have banned the procedure.
Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee, Illinois' neighboring states, adopted measures to ban abortion after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe vs. Wade in June. According to Planned Parenthood, these states' new laws have led to a large influx of women seeking abortion procedures in the Prairie State.
Taking abortion on the road
At the Fairview Heights clinic, one of Planned Parenthood's Illinois facilities just 20 miles from the Illinois-Missouri border, there has been a 30% increase in patients seeking abortions since the repeal of Roe Vs. Wade. Waiting times for appointments also increased from four days to over two weeks. The clinic attributes these new numbers to the large number of women coming from other states where the procedures are not allowed.
The organization notes that the purpose of this mobile clinic is to "bring abortion care to the road and thus help reduce travel distances," in addition to freeing up space in its premises. Colleen McNicholas, M.D., medical director of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis and Southwest Missouri region, said in a statement:
In the last 100 days, I have seen people from all over the country who have traveled to Southern Illinois for abortion care. Planned Parenthood prides itself on bringing creative solutions to an unfair healthcare system and doing everything possible to depoliticize decisions that should be left between providers and their patients.
The mobile clinic will offer consultations and dispense abortion pills. It will be equipped with two examination rooms, a laboratory and a waiting room in an RV. Initially, it will only offer medical abortions up to 11 weeks gestation, but it plans to eventually offer procedural abortions for later-term pregnancies as well. It will operate within Illinois, where abortion remains legal, but will promote its services to neighboring states.
"They take advantage of pregnant women."
The CEO of the pro-life group Sidewalk Advocates, Stacy Smith, told Fox News in a statement that her organization was "incredibly dismayed" to see Planned Parenthood "attempting to maintain and propagate their ideology by offering mobile abortions."
This expansion preys on crisis pregnant women in states that now protect unborn children and their mothers from the tragedy of abortion.
