- A new mobile abortion clinic may help give people access to reproductive care.
- The clinic will be located in Illinois not far from Missouri where abortion is almost completely banned.
- After Roe v. Wade was overturned health providers have worked on bringing better access to people in states that have virtually banned the procedure.
Earlier this week, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri announced plans to open its first mobile abortion clinic by the end of 2022.
This mobile clinic will operate along the border regions of southern Illinois, where abortion is currently legal and protected by the state’s constitution.
The goal is to bring abortion services closer to people in the region, including those who travel to Illinois from the neighboring state of Missouri, where abortion is nearly completely banned.
“Abortion restrictions and bans create a patchwork of access where a patient’s zip code now determines their ability to make fully informed, autonomous reproductive health decisions,” Dr. Amy Addante told Healthline. Addante is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Illinois and a fellow with the advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health.
“Patients who are experiencing undesired or medically complicated pregnancies are faced with the choice to either continue that pregnancy against their will or navigate numerous barriers to traveling out of state,” she continued.
Planned Parenthood’s mobile clinic will operate out of an RV, fully equipped with a waiting area, laboratory, and two exam rooms.
During its initial months of operation, it will offer medication abortion up to 11 weeks of pregnancy. Following a two-drug protocol, patients will take mifepristone on-site and receive counseling to take misoprostol later on.
These two drugs can stop a pregnancy and then induce an abortion.
Eventually, Planned Parenthood also plans to offer procedural abortion from its mobile clinic.
Procedural abortion is sometimes known as surgical abortion, which can be legally performed in Illinois until a pregnancy reaches viability.
Viability is determined as when a fetus can survive outside the womb, which usually happens around 23–24 weeks of pregnancy. After a pregnancy reaches viability, abortion is only legal in Illinois if the pregnant person’s health or life is in danger.
This will be the first mobile abortion clinic operated by Planned Parenthood but not the first in the country.
The nonprofit organization Just the Pill is already operating a mobile abortion clinic through its “Just Delivered” program in Colorado.
Source: Health News
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