In a new effort to skirt abortion laws in red states, Planned Parenthood announced Monday plans for a mobile abortion center in Illinois, the Associated Press reported.
A 37-foot RV will travel along the border of Illinois, offering chemical abortions to women in the surrounding states. Abortions are legal in Illinois but are banned or heavily restricted in the neighboring states of Missouri, Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, abortion facilities around the country, with the aid of Democratic state governments, have been scheming to evade red states' abortion bans by bringing women seeking abortions across state borders.
Spokeswoman for the National Right to Life Committee, Laura Echevarria, called Planned Parenthood's mobile abortion facility "another grotesque demeaning of human life."
The RV abortion center, expected to be operational by the end of the year, will offer chemical abortions up to 11 weeks of gestation, and Planned Parenthood aims to also provide surgical abortions in the RV after the first few months of operation.
In Colorado, the pro-abortion organization Just The Pill operates a mobile center and plans to open another in Illinois next year. In July, California doctor Meg Autry proposed a floating clinic in the Gulf of Mexico to evade Southern states' laws. Democrat-led cities including St. Louis have pledged to pay travel costs for women to get out-of-state abortions.
"Chemical abortions can lead to life-threatening complications," Echevarria said in a statement. "Will women recognize those complications early enough to seek treatment?"
Planned Parenthood of St. Louis declined to discuss safety and security measures for the mobile center.