As Southern States Ban Abortion, Thousands Turn To Illinois Clinics
Huff PostLOADING ERROR LOADING FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. — Dr. Colleen McNicholas is fresh off performing two abortions when a ringing phone quickly stops her. “It’s like crisis management every day of the year.” Dr. Colleen McNicholas poses for a portrait inside an exam room in Fairview Heights, Ill. Jeff Roberson via Associated Press Months before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Planned Parenthood and the nearby Hope Clinic had already been grappling with a surge of patients from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and elsewhere after Gov. Now, about 70 women call the center every day for help getting to an abortion clinic in southern Illinois, said Kawanna Shannon, the director of patient access at the Planned Parenthood clinic. Almost all of them need some type of help – be it travel, be it procedure costs.” Two hours south of the Planned Parenthood clinic, two new abortion clinics opened in Carbondale, Illinois, late last year to give women living in banned states a closer option. After reading the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion last May, Andrea Gallegos, the director of the Alamo Clinic, said she hopped on Google and started looking for liberal-leaning cities in rural, southern Illinois.