Planned Parenthood announced Wednesday they would be opening an abortion “mega-clinic” in Illinois to continue to provide St. Louis, Missouri with abortion access as the city’s lone clinic fights to stay open.
The new 18,000-square-foot facility was built quickly using a shell company to ensure as few delays as possible from protestors.
“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, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said to CBS News.
The new clinic is expected to open later this month and can begin taking patients from their fellow clinic in St. Louis only 13 miles away, where abortion rights have been under fire in the state of Missouri.
Perceptions of a more conservative Supreme Court have led to states like Missouri to pass abortion bans to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide. A federal judge blocked Missouri’s ban performing an abortion after eight weeks — before a woman may know she is pregnant.
Additionally, Missouri’s Planned Parenthood has been fighting for its ability to perform abortions.
In May, Planned Parenthood said in a statement to CBS News that Missouri’s health department was “refusing to renew” the abortion license for the only clinic in the state — which could have been the first time a state has had no abortion access since the landmark high court ruling.
Preliminary injunctions have allowed the clinic to stay open, but they must still force patients to go through a 72 hour waiting period and receive anti-abortion literature through state-mandated counseling.
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