This is America’s first mobile abortion clinic — a 37-foot RV that will operate on the outskirts of states where the procedure has been banned.
Operated by the women’s health nonprofit Planned Parenthood, the clinic will travel along the Illinois border to provide abortions to women in Kentucky and Missouri.
It contains only a few rooms large enough to accommodate a few people at a time.
There is a waiting room at the entrance before a long, narrow hallway leads a woman to a small operating room in the back where the procedure is performed.
There is a window and canopy outside so women can discuss the case with a member of Planned Parenthood before entering.
By the end of the year, the clinic hopes to be able to offer medical abortions. Surgical abortions will be accessible within the clinic next year, Planned Parenthood says.
The organization says abortions at its clinics can cost as much as $750, though the procedure is often covered by a woman’s insurance.
Kentucky and Missouri have enacted severe restrictions on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.
Abortion is strictly forbidden in Missouri. The state had a trigger law that went into effect when the Supreme Court delivered the verdict in June.
Kentucky women are not permitted to have an abortion except in cases where serious injury or death in childbirth is likely.
Planned Parenthood hopes women in those states can easily travel to Illinois — where there are no restrictions — and safely undergo the procedure.
According to a recent report, since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, the average travel time for an abortion has tripled, from 30 to 100 minutes.
Abortion has been banned outright in a dozen states, with the portion heavily restricted in both Georgia and North Dakota. 19 states have no abortion restrictions.
The clinic includes a waiting room, a laboratory and two operating rooms
Planned Parenthood hopes to offer abortions to women in Missouri and Kentucky, where the surgery is banned
The clinic will also be outfitted with cameras and a security guard to protect it from attacks, which the DoJ said has become more common this year
The Americans got their first glimpse of Planned Parenthood’s new mobile abortion clinic
This map shows the estimated travel times to abortion clinics in the US in the past year before abortion restrictions were put in place
Travel time for abortions has TRIPLED since Roe V Wade and overseas sales of abortion pills have doubled
Travel times for abortions have tripled and overseas sales of abortion pills have skyrocketed since Roe v. Wade was lifted.
The human implications of June’s landmark decision were laid bare in more than a dozen analyzes and reports released Tuesday.
One of the newly published studies estimates that it now takes an average of about 100 minutes to get to an abortion clinic, compared to just 30 minutes last year.
A second report showed that orders for abortion pills abroad have surged, particularly in states like Louisiana and Arkansas, where the surgery has been banned.
A third study suggested that depression and domestic violence could increase as a result of unwanted pregnancies.
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, 13 states have banned abortion, while five others have restricted the procedure.
“Our priority is to ensure that voters who have been left behind in these states have access to basic health care,” said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of the St. Louis-area chapter of Planned Parenthood, told CBS.
The clinic has examination rooms, a waiting room and a laboratory.
Planned Parenthood said that demand for abortions in southern Illinois clinics has already increased by 370 percent since the June ruling.
“We are really at a critical moment, a public health crisis, where we need people to think differently, work together, act boldly and take risks,” continued Dr. McNicholas gone.
Some patients even travel to Illinois from across Missouri, a state whose southern neighbors have banned the procedure since conception.
Many of these states have had to shut down operations and even close abortion clinics in the time since the ruling.
A report by the Pro Choice Guttmacher Institute last month found that 66 abortion clinics in 15 states where the procedure was restricted had closed in recent months.
The Justice Department has warned that many remaining clinics are still vulnerable to violence.
She reports at least seven attacks on abortion clinics this year and 23 since 2011.
To avoid these problems, the mobile clinic is equipped with cameras and will have a security guard on site.
“We were really concerned about the security of the unit,” said Dr. McNichols.
Planned Parenthood says an abortion could cost up to $750 and be covered by insurance.
The procedure has been outright banned in some form in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Many other states also have some sort of restriction, usually tied to the week of pregnancy the woman is in.
Abortion rights were protected throughout the United States after the 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
Abortion regulation was returned to the states this year, however, when the Supreme Court ruled on June 24 that abortion rights were not protected under the Constitution.