Wisconsin medical providers are traveling across state lines to provide abortions in Illinois, expanding access to the procedure after the recent fall of Roe v. Wade.
Several new abortion clinics are also expected to open soon in Rockford and Carbondale, parts of the state with a dearth of abortion providers. Two new clinics are planned for Rockford — which hasn’t had an abortion provider in about a decade — and a third clinic could begin providing medication abortions as soon as next month in Carbondale, the home of Southern Illinois University.
Reproductive rights advocates hope the new clinics and additional medical providers will help Illinois handle the recent influx of out-of-state abortion patients, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had established the right to terminate a pregnancy nationwide since 1973.
