The resistance is organized. Anticipating the upcoming end of the shutdown Roe v. wade, which grants constitutional protection to the right to abortion in the United States, various groups are struggling to keep pregnancy termination accessible. At the heart of this movement is the state of Illinois, politically and geographically well placed to play this role.
“We are an oasis in an abortion desert. »
The one who draws this conclusion is Mary Jane Maharry of Planned Parenthood Illinois.
Yes Roe v. wade is indeed invalidated by the Supreme Court, “each of the states surrounding Illinois will either ban abortion or severely restrict it”, she pointed out to the To have to. It is also expected that half of the states — 26 out of 52 — will go in this direction.
Already patients
Under the weight of mounting restrictions, Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit that runs health centers offering sex education and various reproductive health services, has turned its eyes to Illinois. “We have been preparing for years for a wave of patients from out of state. »
He has built two new health centers there in recent years: that of Waukegan, on the Wisconsin border, and that of Flossmoor, very close to Indiana. Not to mention the Fairview Heights clinic, opened in 2019 near the Mississippi River, which separates Illinois from Missouri.
The downtown Chicago clinic expanded its premises two months ago precisely to prepare for a surge of patients, says Ms.me Maharry in interview. The organization also focused on expanding its telemedicine service and began delivering the abortion pill by mail to patients in Illinois. All of this frees up clinic space for pregnant women in other states. Not possible for them to benefit from telemedicine or mailings: the law requires a residential address in Illinois.
“Yes, a woman from Mississippi would have to drive to Illinois to get a telemedicine appointment there. A journey of 800 km and 8 hours separates the capital of this state from the two closest clinics in Illinois, in the southwest, those of Granite City and Fairview Heights.
This is where the women will go if the abortion clinic in Jackson, the only one still open in Mississippi, has to close because the other options have dried up, had also indicated to the To have to Michelle Colon, a long-time women’s rights activist.
Perceptible influx
Planned Parenthood knows well that women from the Midwest and South will converge on Illinois, a Democratic stronghold in a part of the country painted red. “We are preparing to see two to five times more patients and we expect the number of women coming from out of state specifically for an abortion to increase 20 times,” said Ms.me Maharry.
Moreover, the influx has already begun. When Texas banned all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy last September, Illinois saw a “significant” increase in patients from other states, up to 30 percent, she said.
Mississippi woman will have to drive to Illinois for telemedicine appointment
Then there was this domino effect: women from Texas were going to Oklahoma, but when that state also tightened the screws, they had to go even further east, and even further north.
In the parking lot of the Blue and Gray Clinic in Fairview Heights on Tuesday were indeed cars with Texas and Mississippi licenses.
“2021 was the worst year in history for abortion restrictions and bans,” laments Mme Maharry. Planned Parenthood has identified more than 660 across the country. “This means that women have to travel further and further to obtain care that they do not have at home. »
Other states are also likely to see an increase in women seeking abortions, such as California and New York.
In Illinois, a regional logistics center has recently emerged: a partnership between the two clinics in the southwest of the state, namely the Hope Clinic in Granite City and the Hope Clinic in Fairview Heights, which is under the aegis of Planned Parenthood St. Louis. With just one call, women can find the nearest clinic and get help getting there, as the center can also book hotel, transportation, find funding for the procedure and even child care services.
“It takes a lot of the stress off the patients,” says Maggie Olivia, who works for Pro Choice Missouri.
Welcoming all these women is a “considerable challenge”, “but our doors are open”, underlines Mme Maharry.
Opponents strike back
Those who oppose abortion are also organizing.
The Fairview Heights clinic is surrounded by posters which, prominently, show what are supposed to represent aborted fetuses, and also babies born healthy. “Choose life”, can we read on the latter.
A mobile clinic providing free ultrasounds, pregnancy tests, and tests for sexually transmitted infections is parked against the gate of the Planned Parenthood clinic in the adjacent parking lot.
The yellow-and-green van is owned by the nonprofit Christian organization Mosaic, which is funded by some 90 area churches, president and CEO Kathy Lesnoff said.
Mosaic positions itself against abortion: “We don’t hide it,” she says, adding that its objective is to give “rigorous information” to women and to present them with other options besides the cessation of pregnancy. Afterwards, he helps mothers in need by giving them baby monitors, for example.
On its blog, Mosaic reports on the various dangers and risks of complications “severe in some cases” associated with the abortion pill – claims rejected by Planned Parenthood, which describes it as “very safe”. The practices of these “pregnancy centers” have been denounced by multiple organizations, including Planned Parenthood, because they put pressure on women to dissuade them from obtaining an abortion.
Mosaic is only active in the state of Illinois. It has only two offices — near the region’s two abortion clinics, in Fairview Heights and Granite City. “Because there are large abortion facilities in these two cities,” said Ms.me Lesnoff.
The Life Coalition has activists out to catch those who arrive at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Fairview Heights before they even step through its black gates.
The organization has rented offices in the building next door. From her windows, she keeps an eye on the abortion clinic.
“Our mission is to end abortion…peacefully and prayerfully,” its website reads.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund. The duty .