After the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent restrictions on abortion implemented in multiple states across the country, the far-left pro-abortion group Planned Parenthood has announced a new strategy to combat such pro-life laws: Opening multiple “mobile clinics” that will travel to the borders of states with such laws in place.
According to NPR, the group plans to open its very first mobile abortion clinic in southern Illinois; the clinic operates out of a large RV that includes a waiting area, a laboratory, and two separate exam rooms. The clinic will offer consultations and give out abortion pills in late 2022, and will eventually begin offering surgical abortions in 2023, bringing its services as close to the borders of certain Republican-led states as possible while remaining within the borders of a pro-abortion state like Illinois.
“Our goal is to reduce the hundreds of miles that people are having to travel now in order to access care…and meet them where they are,” said Yamelsie Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood. “It gives us a lot of flexibility about where to be.”
Planned Parenthood had previously begun setting up abortion clinics along the border of Illinois, including one that opened in 2019 in Fairview Heights, just across the border from St. Louis, Missouri, a state with multiple pro-life laws on the books. That clinic, Rodriguez said, is expected to receive about 14,000 patients annually, which marks an increase that “is materializing much, much faster than we anticipated.”
“We just need more access points,” Rodriguez added.
In June, the Supreme Court of the United States officially overturned the 49-year-old precedent in Roe v. Wade with the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, ultimately determining that there is no constitutional right to have an abortion. The ruling eliminated the nationwide legalization of abortion and instead returned the matter back to the states to be decided on an individual basis, as per the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.