Meeting abortion patients where they are: providers turn to mobile units

[Demovictory9]

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/02/1133454349/meeting-abortion-patients-where-they-are-providers-turn-to-mobile-units

St. Clair County, Ill. — LaQuetta Cooper is standing in front of a big, blue RV parked in an industrial lot, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. It looks much like any other RV out on the road — except for the lettering on the side that reads, "Mobile Health Clinic."

Cooper, health care operations director for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, says the vehicle soon will offer abortion pills to patients in Illinois, cutting down their travel times by driving closer to them.

"The biggest needs that we are seeing is the fact that they have to travel so far to get the care that they need," Cooper says. "This will be helpful so they don't have to travel three to five hours."

The RV was delivered this week in preparation for launching in the coming months. Planned Parenthood first announced its plan to develop the unit about a month ago.

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"This unit really truly is, for us, a demonstration of an act of defiance," she says. "We're here, and we're going to be here, and we're going to continue to show up for people who need us."

Planned Parenthood plans to begin offering abortion pills from the mobile unit later this year and surgical abortions sometime next year, focusing on patients in southern Illinois. Just the Pill has purchased a second mobile clinic and is making plans for a third. The group also intends to offer surgical abortions next year, and is looking at expanding from Colorado into Illinois and Minnesota.