New multistate Planned Parenthood clinic can serve 11,000 women a year

A new Planned Parenthood clinic opening this week in Fairview Heights, Ill., could provide abortion services to around 11,000 women per year as abortion restrictions in some red states have been tightened in recent months.

The president of Planned Parenthood in southwest Missouri and St. Louis told The New York Times that the new megaclinic, which is located just a few miles from the Missouri border, will service thousands of women in states like Missouri where just one abortion clinic remains open.

{mosads}“The idea is that we are creating a regional abortion access hub,” said Yamelsie Rodriguez. “In a post-Roe world, this is crucial to our mission.”

“We know women will travel across state lines and across the country” to access abortion services, Rodriguez continued. The new clinic, she added, is six-times the size of the current clinic open in St. Louis.

The head of the National Abortion Federation said that the clinic was prepared to take an influx of patients down the road if conservative states such as Texas move to further restrict abortion rights.

“We are prepared to take an influx from places that could lose access altogether,” the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale told the Times.

Planned Parenthood first announced the construction of the clinic earlier this month, which was done through a shell company to avoid negative attention from anti-abortion groups.

“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,” said Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri earlier this month.