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Planned Parenthood Will Soon Offer Abortion Services from Mobile Clinic

A Planned Parenthood chapter operating in Missouri and Illinois is preparing to open a mobile unit providing abortions in southern Illinois.
A Planned Parenthood chapter operating in Missouri and Illinois is preparing to open a mobile unit providing abortions in southern Illinois.

Sarah McCammon/NPR

Planned Parenthood is preparing to for the launch of its mobile clinic, that will soon offer abortion pills to patients with limited access due to state bans following the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

The mobile clinic — which is set up inside of an RV — arrived in southern Illinois this week ahead of its upcoming launch, hoping to significantly cut down the travel time for patients.

"The biggest needs that we are seeing is the fact that they have to travel so far to get the care that they need," LaQuetta Cooper, health care operations director for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told NPR. "This will be helpful so they don't have to travel three to five hours."

The RV is equipped with two examination rooms, including small exam tables and ultrasound machines, and is expected to be up and running by the end of the year. It will offer abortion pills to patients and the organization has shared additional plans for the unit to be equipped for surgical first-trimester abortions early next year.

RELATED: 1 in 3 Women Have to Travel Over an Hour for an Abortion Clinic: New Study

Planned Parenthood, including Dr. Colleen McNicholas, left, and LaQuetta Cooper, right, staff tour the new mobile clinic that will soon provide abortion pills to patients in Illinois.
Planned Parenthood, including Dr. Colleen McNicholas, left, and LaQuetta Cooper, right, staff tour the new mobile clinic that will soon provide abortion pills to patients in Illinois.

Sarah McCammon/NPR

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Last month, Planned Parenthood first announced that it would be launching the mobile clinic in southern Illinois due to the growing number of patients within states that have implemented abortion bans.

The organization's Fairview Heights clinic saw a 340 percent increase in patients after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

"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," Yamelsie Rodriguez, president of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told NPR at the time.

The clinic will be operating in Illinois — where abortion remains legal — and travel along the borders of neighboring states that prohibit or restrict abortion services. Rodriguez added that it "gives us a lot of flexibility about where to be."

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Preparation for the mobile clinic comes just as a recent study revealed that one in three women of reproductive age in the United States now live over an hour away from an abortion clinic.

On Tuesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a peer reviewed study analyzing census data from nearly 64 million women between ages 15 and 44 in the United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

Researchers found that women seeking abortion services had to travel more than 100 minutes to reach a legal clinic. Prior to the end of Roe, the average travel time to the nearest abortion clinic was reportedly less than 30 minutes.