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Planned Parenthood just announced a brand new ‘mega clinic’ facility in southern Illinois, as first reported by CBS News. The news agency, which went behind the scenes at the clinic while it was still under construction, says that the facility is 180,000 square feet. That makes it one of the largest abortion clinics in the entire nation. Notably, it’s also a mere 13 miles away from the sole clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, which, along with being overworked, is battling to keep operating. We’ll loop back to why that’s so important after we go over the specifics on this new facility.
"We were really intentional and thoughtful about making sure that we were able to complete this project as expeditiously as possible because we saw the writing on the wall — patients need better access, so we wanted to get it open as quickly as we could," Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis region and Southwest Missouri, told CBS News.
Missouri’s last abortion clinic has been trapped in a frustrating legal battle over licensure from the state. This issue is in addition to the terrifying law passed earlier this year in the state, which would ban abortions after just eight weeks. Mind you, many, many people don’t even know they’re pregnant at eight weeks, much less have time to process and make a decision about their pregnancy. Coming up with the money for an abortion can also be challenging in such a limited time frame.
As of August, a federal judge blocked that law, but it’s only temporary. And the block, in itself, still doesn’t lower the burden on the single clinic that’s been operating in the state. What will ease the burden? The aforementioned new mega facility is hoping to take patients starting later this month. McNicholas confirmed that she expects many patients will come over from Missouri.
If there’s so much need, why not make the clinic in Missouri? That goes back to the state laws. Illinois has moved in the opposite direction in terms of reproductive health—earlier this year, while states like Alabama and Georgia were pushing extreme abortion bans, Illinois passed the “Reproductive Health Act,” which (basically) says that abortion access is a fundamental right. So a mega clinic in Illinois is, at this point, a lot more stable than one in Missouri.
Still, as McNicholas told CBS News, the new facility doesn’t mean they’re ditching Missouri’s needs.
"Our supporters, our patients, the board, everyone is so committed to the mission of being present in Missouri and taking the responsibility to provide access to abortion for Missourians in the place they live," she stated to the news organization. "Although I am confident it will be a fight, we will continue to show up to that fight."