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Planned Parenthood launching mobile abortion clinic in Illinois

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Illinois

* NPR…

With a growing number of patients in states that now prohibit abortion traveling for the procedure, Planned Parenthood says it will soon open its first mobile abortion clinic in the country, in southern Illinois. […]

The mobile clinic will begin offering consultations and dispensing abortion pills later this year. It will operate within Illinois, where abortion remains legal, but will be able to travel closer to neighboring states’ borders, reducing the distance many patients travel for the procedure. […]

The mobile facility – set up inside of an RV – will include a small waiting area, laboratory, and two exam rooms. It initially will provide medication abortion up to 11 weeks gestation, officials said. It eventually will offer surgical abortions, likely beginning sometime next year.

Patients seeing healthcare providers at the mobile clinic will follow the same protocol as those visiting a permanent Planned Parenthood facility, said to Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood in the region. They take mifepristone - the first in a two-drug protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration - on-site. They’re offered counseling about the other drug, misoprostol, which is taken later.

* Axios…

The mobile clinic will be outfitted in an RV and will serve patients along the Illinois border and provide the full slate of services usually provided by a brick-and-mortar Planned Parenthood, per a press release.

- The mobile clinic will help Planned Parenthood reduce wait times and travel distances for patients as well as free up capacity at the Fairview Heights clinic.
- The mobile clinic will have a waiting room, a lab and two exam rooms, and will provide medicated abortions up to 11 weeks gestation. It has plans to offer procedural abortions in the future.
- The mobile clinic will begin seeing patients at the end of October or early November, the spokesperson told Axios.
- Planned Parenthood has other mobile clinics in the past that have offered family planning services, this is the first to provide abortion services, the spokesperson added.

* Sept 30 marked 100 days post Dobbs. Tribune…

A hundred days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortions for out-of-state patients have surged in Illinois, as many Midwestern and Southern states have banned or severely restricted terminating a pregnancy.

Before the historic reversal of federal reproductive rights, Planned Parenthood of Illinois used to schedule dozens of abortion patients from other states each month. Now hundreds of patients are crossing state lines monthly to terminate a pregnancy in Illinois, the agency said. […]

Before Roe was overturned, Planned Parenthood of Illinois on average scheduled about 100 out-of-state abortion patients every month. The first week after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 landmark case, nearly 750 patients from other states scheduled appointments to terminate a pregnancy, the agency said. […]

In January, two southern Illinois abortion providers opened the Regional Logistics Center, a designated call center where case managers help traveling patients with transportation, lodging, child care and other needs. The center received 648 calls from patients in May, the month before Roe was reversed. In August, the number of calls more than tripled to 1,937, said Julie Lynn, spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, which covers southern Illinois.

* Indiana abortion clinics slowly resuming care following injunction. WTHR…

It’s been one week since a judge granted an injunction on the state’s abortion ban.

For clinics, that injunction has allowed them to resume abortion care for patients. Dr. Katie McHugh, an OB-GYN care and abortion care provider in the state, she said they’re back to seeing patients once again. But clinics are now moving at a much slower pace, a lasting impact from the ban that was initially enacted Sept. 15.

“We are up and running at all of the clinics in Indiana, not to the previous capacity, which is OK, we’re doing what we can and making do with the resources and the staff that we have available. But we are up and running and we are able to provide care again and the patients who are coming in needing and requesting abortion care are so grateful,” McHugh said.

McHugh said they’re working to ramp back up to previous levels, but it’s tricky. One challenge facing providers is that they’re unsure on if or when the state or a judge might shut clinics down again. When the ban initially went into place earlier this month, she said, many jobs were cut. Bringing staff back has been tough.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 2:19 pm

Comments

I’m very supportive of this. My only fear is that I hope this RV does not have the words Planned Parenthood on the vehicle and they hire very well-trained and armed security. I’m concerned that certain types will try to disrupt this RV or even worse if they catch wind where it’s headed.

Comment by Baloneymous Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 2:42 pm
Agree with Baloneymous. Needed and need security.

Comment by Amalia Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 2:44 pm
“It will operate within Illinois, will be able to travel closer to neighboring states’…The mobile facility – set up inside of an RV – will provide medication abortion up to 11 weeks gestation, officials said. It eventually will offer surgical abortions, likely beginning sometime next year.

Will JB’s grant $ for Planned parenthood which was intended to support abortion services within Illinois be used for these mobile clinics- that will serve mostly out-of-state women?
https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.24907.html

Comment by Donnie Elgin Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 2:53 pm
IL women live near the borders too and also may want abortion services without taking a long trip to access them.

Comment by cermak_rd Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 3:50 pm
I can just imagine the outrage that we will be hearing from all the activists that are waiting for a new issue to rally around. A unit like this could be a huge target.

Comment by illini Monday, Oct 3, 22 @ 11:03 pm
“Will JB’s grant $ for Planned parenthood which was intended to support abortion services within Illinois be used for these mobile clinics- that will serve mostly out-of-state women?”

In other words, will the money intended to support abortion services within Illinois be used to support abortion services in mobile clinics within Illinois?

Yes.

– MrJM

Comment by MisterJayEm Tuesday, Oct 4, 22 @ 8:22 am