Emma Tucker, CNN
Planned Parenthood is preparing to open its first mobile abortion clinic in southern Illinois. This brings services closer to patients by traveling along the borders of neighboring states where abortion is prohibited.
The 37-foot RV accommodates small teams of 3-5 people and includes a waiting area, lab space, and two testing rooms.
The mobile clinic is a larger effort by family planning chapters operating in both abortion-legal Illinois and abortion-prohibited Missouri to reduce travel time and costs for patients seeking abortion treatment. It is part of our efforts.
The mobile clinic is expected to be fully operational by the end of the year, according to Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood for the St. Louis area and southwestern Missouri.
Affiliate Fairview Heights abortion clinics in the Illinois side of the St. Louis area have been inundated with abortion patients since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, revoking federal abortion rights.
Between June and October of this year, there was a 370 percent increase in abortion requests from states outside the Missouri and Illinois service areas, said representatives of the St. Louis office.
McNicholas said the Supreme Court ruling has increased demand for abortion care “faster than expected” for women living in the South and Midwest, as well as for patients seeking an abortion in the third trimester of pregnancy.
After the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, the average travel time for women to an abortion facility increased significantly in the United States, with more than a dozen states having complete or complete abortions, according to a study released Tuesday in the Journal of Women’s Health. A partial ban was enacted. American Medical Association.
JAMA researchers considered abortion centers in states where the procedure was banned to be inactive, reducing the number of active facilities by a factor of ten. The decline in operating facilities means that her one-third of women of childbearing age in the United States live an hour or more away from the nearest abortion facility.
Abortion patients travel up to 600 miles for care
According to McNicholas, many patients travel 600 miles each way to get abortion treatment at an Illinois clinic, and many of them travel long distances because of the burdens of children, jobs, and other family responsibilities. have to make difficult adjustments.
“The infrastructure that provides abortion services across the country is very weak right now,” McNicholas told CNN. “We really feel the weight of so many people traveling for care across the abortion provider ecosystem. It’s about helping them navigate and reduce wait time as much as possible.”
In the early stages, the clinic will only offer medical abortion, pregnancy tests, pregnancy ultrasounds, and STD testing and treatment, McNicholas said, reducing the capacity of a brick-and-mortar clinic in Fairview Heights. ‘ helps. The goal is to start offering abortions to patients by the first quarter of next year, she added.
Before the Supreme Court ruling, it was already difficult for many women in the country to get an abortion, according to Rene Almering, a professor of sociology at Yale University.
“This is a special response to how abortion restrictions have changed from state to state, but addresses the very long-standing problem of people having to travel for hours, endure waiting periods, and spend their own money. I do,” Almering said. Planned Parenthood’s mobile clinic.
“The fact that Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers are taking these kinds of extreme measures to increase access to abortion is a very sad statement about contemporary American politics,” she added. rice field.
Mobile clinics reduce barriers
According to McNicholas, the mobile clinic concept was born long before the Supreme Court stripped federal abortion rights. Because Missouri has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, and many residents traveled to Illinois for abortion care.
In anticipation of Roe v. Wade’s “inevitable” overthrow, in 2019 Planned Parenthood affiliates opened a clinic across the Missouri line in Fairview Heights.
“One of the things we learned from our experience in Missouri is that having physical space can meet some people’s needs, but it still poses a tremendous logistical challenge for people. After Law was overturned, if we were going to do really innovative work to reduce barriers for people, we had to find a way to bring that care closer to people. Nicholas said.
McNicholas and her team are in the final stages of making sure all the equipment is working and starting to fill the schedule with patient appointments. They also planned the route that the mobile clinic would take by analyzing data on patient travel patterns into Illinois over the past few months to determine what “would affect people the most.” said McNicholas.
Another part of the plan includes implementing alarm systems, cameras, and other security measures to protect patients and staff from any threats.
Staff at the St. Louis office will help patients make appointments at mobile clinics, depending on how far they must travel for abortion treatment.
Cynthia Buckley, a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says Illinois is a “reproductive care oasis” for women living in neighboring at-risk states.
Buckley called the mobile clinic “a godsend.” Because while there are several abortion clinics near the Illinois border, clinics north and south of the border are severely lacking.
Abortion is legal in Missouri’s border states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. Abortion is illegal in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, with very few exceptions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion laws.
“The easier it is for women to access care, the better off everyone will be,” she said. but also counseling, cancer screening, prenatal care, and reproductive information.”
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