Planned Parenthood is launching its first-ever mobile abortion clinic in the country.
The healthcare provider says the clinic will serve border regions of southern Illinois so people in states with abortion restrictions won't have to travel as far for the procedure.
"Increasing our capacity to see more patients in Missouri and Illinois is helping combat multiple public health crises — from health care provider shortages, rising STI(sexually transmitted infection) rates, worsening Black maternal mortality rates, and abortion bans across the south and Midwest," said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.
McNicholas said that she has provided care for people from across the country who traveled to southern Illinois since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Planned Parenthood reports that a clinic near the Missouri-Illinois border has seen a 30% spike in abortion patients and wait times for an appointment went from four days to more than 2 weeks.
Missouri had a trigger law in place that banned virtually all abortions after Roe was overturned.