Abortion bans fuel a rise in high-risk patients heading to Illinois hospitals

By Kristen Schorsch, WBEZ Chicago
SEPTEMBER 14, 2023

When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn’t have kidneys and his lungs wouldn’t develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours.

The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion.

Continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/hospital-abortions-npr-partnership/

Abortion bans are fueling a rise in high-risk patients heading to Illinois hospitals

August 23, 2023
By Kristen Schorsch
3-Minute Listen with Transcript

When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn't have kidneys and his lungs wouldn't develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours.

The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/23/1193898181/abortion-bans-are-fueling-a-rise-in-high-risk-patients-heading-to-illinois-hospi

Last year’s US Supreme Court ruling left women struggling to find abortions

Evelyn Hockstein, Gabriella Borter
July 22, 2023

The day Alan Braid opened his abortion clinic for business in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last August, he looked out at a waiting room full of patients fresh off trips from Texas, some with suitcases in tow.

Several months later, Dr Braid’s daughter Andrea Gallegos drew a similar crowd to the opening of their abortion clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, with patients arriving from far-flung states to end pregnancies.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/roe-v-wade-texas-abortion-b2366363.html

22.07.2023

How one quiet Illinois college town became the symbol of abortion rights in America

Chris Kenning, USA TODAY
Jun. 4, 2023

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The 26-year-old had never heard of the distant southern Illinois town, but it had become the closest option.

So she cobbled together money. Found child care. Asked her brother for a ride. And set off early one morning to drive north across state lines to 22,000-person Carbondale.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2023/06/04/carbondale-illinois-abortion-clinics/70180040007/

As South bans abortion, thousands turn to Illinois clinics

By AMANDA SEITZ
Mar 25, 2023

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Dr. Colleen McNicholas is fresh off performing two abortions when a ringing phone quickly stops her.

“Oh, ugh,” she said, eyes widened, before she darted off to another room.

Just the day before, 58 women had abortions at the Fairview Heights’ Planned Parenthood clinic, 15 miles east of St. Louis. But the new day is still stacked with appointments; as many as 100 abortion and family planning patients might walk through the doors.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-bans-illinois-clinic-south-travel-demand-a30afcbd022cdeeb92b9aa5788421687

25.03.2023

Commentary

Alamo Clinic

Andrea Gallegos

Dr. Colleen McNicholas

Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood

Inside the plan to create an abortion refuge for a post-Roe era

Abortion providers in blue-state Illinois are laying the groundwork for an influx of patients from states poised to ban abortion if the Supreme Court overturns its landmark precedent

By Caroline Kitchener
March 28, 2022

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — When the woman called Planned Parenthood to schedule her abortion, Alexandria Ball picked up the phone and explained exactly what would happen next.

Ball and her colleagues would book her bus ticket to Illinois.

They would put her up in a hotel.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/28/abortion-sanctuary-roe-v-wade/

USA – Illegal abortion leads to circle of tragedy

Chicago’s 1941 “Million Dollar Abortion Ring” is a reminder of what we’ve got in store if Roe v. Wade gets overturned.

By Neil Steinberg
Jun 15, 2021

An abortion cost $50 in Chicago in 1941.

Kinda cheap — $800 in today’s dollars — considering it was an illegal procedure, performed in secret, condemned by the church at a time when organized religion had even more of a stranglehold on American society than it does now, which is really saying something.

Continued: https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2021/6/15/22534907/abortion-roe-wade-supreme-court-overturn-illegal-chicago-1941-gabler-clinic-moriarity-martin

USA – Correcting the Record on Abortion During COVID-19: A Q&A With Dr. Erin King

Correcting the Record on Abortion During COVID-19: A Q&A With Dr. Erin King
"You can’t wait one week, two weeks, five weeks. You’ve got to do it right then. It’s got to be accessible."

Apr 21, 2020
Regina Mahone

It’s never been a scarier or more critical time to be a physician providing abortions in the United States—let alone a human being trying to exist and care for loved ones during a literal pandemic.

The list of things keeping Dr. Erin King up at night grew longer as we spoke last week by phone.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/04/21/correcting-the-record-on-abortion-during-covid-19-a-qa-with-dr-erin-king/

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

March 12, 2020
Sarah McCammon

Missouri could soon become the first state in the nation without a clinic providing abortions, but Planned Parenthood officials say the last remaining one there has already all-but ceased performing the procedure.

The clinic, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, is at the center of a licensing dispute between the organization and Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson's administration. That clinic's future is in the hands of a state commission that is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks or months.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/12/814768754/as-missouri-clinic-awaits-its-legal-fate-abortions-in-state-have-virtually-halte

New Illinois Abortion Clinic Anticipates Post-Roe World

New Illinois Abortion Clinic Anticipates Post-Roe World
A regional clinic across the river from Missouri reflects how both sides of the abortion divide are looking toward a landscape in which some states might ban abortions outright.

by Sabrina Tavernise
Oct. 22, 2019

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — When it opens just across the river from St. Louis this week, the new Planned Parenthood clinic in Illinois will be one of the largest abortion clinics in the Midwest, set up to serve around 11,000 women a year with various health services, double the capacity of the clinic it is replacing.

Its size says as much about the future as the present: With the Supreme Court’s shift to the right, activists on both sides of the abortion divide are adjusting their strategy, anticipating that Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that extended federal protections to abortion, might eventually be overturned and that some states would jump at the chance to ban abortions.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/us/missouri-illinois-planned-parenthood.html