ST. LOUIS — Planned Parenthood announced a plan to make abortion access easier 100 days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
It is launching its first-ever mobile abortion clinic and it will operate in southern Illinois.
Planned Parenthood St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri officials say in the last 100 days, its Fairview Heights location has seen:
- appointment wait times go from four days to more than two weeks
- patients from outside of Missouri and Illinois increase by more than 340%
- a 30% increase in abortion patients
- patients coming for abortion after 14 weeks of gestation increase by more than 115%
"This is our act of defiance," said Yamelsie Rodríguez, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.
The 37-foot van will hit the road soon toward southern Illinois.
"It has standard lab, little waiting room, it has two exam rooms," Rodríguez notes.
It plans to provide immediate services.
"Initially we will offer medication abortion," said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. "We do have plans in the first quarter of next calendar year and expand to first-trimester procedural abortions."
They both said this is a way to reach patients who live in a state banning abortion services. Both said it will reduce travel distances and wait times.
"We have seen the distances people will travel to access abortion care," Dr. McNicholas said.
However, not everyone is on board.
Brian Westbrook is the Executive Director of Coalition Life.
"What Planned Parenthood is doing is taking their deadly business on the road," he said. "People in southern Illinois do not want abortions, so they are going to have a hard time to park this thing."
He said Coalition Life also goes directly to the patients. They provide financial help and build a pregnancy plan.
"We go to where abortion happens and talk to women who are about to get one to give them direct and immediate alternatives," Westbrook said.
Westbrook believes this van can do more harm than good.
"That women may suffer a lot of bleeding and hemorrhaging for a pill abortion," he said.
Mary Maschmeier is the Founder of the Defenders of the Unborn.
She said she is in disbelief at the news and also worries about safety.
"How safe is that for the mom?" she asked. "She comes out of there and drives homes, what if she has complications the next day? How does she seek that van back? The audacity of these people."
However, Rodríguez said patient safety is the biggest priority.
Westbrook believes the van won't help people beyond that.
"This mobile abortion van is doing nothing to help women and nothing to help people in their financial situations or any of their crisis they are actually in," he says.
While they may not see eye to eye, patients are at the forefront.
"We will be offering help and resources to women anywhere we go. They have choices and opportunities and the pro-life movement is here to help them on that journey," Westbrook said.
"We are committed to protecting and expanding care where we can," Rodríguez said.
The mobile unit will arrive in a couple of weeks and it will take a few months to figure out logistics.
Planned Parenthood plans to have it fully operational by the end of the year.