CHICAGO — Each year, thousands of women cross state lines to have an abortion in Illinois — and that number could grow exponentially as pending U.S. Supreme Court decisions and new laws in various states challenge reproductive rights across large swaths of the nation.
But women traveling here to terminate a pregnancy will have a new resource designed to make the process easier: Two southern Illinois abortion providers have partnered to create one centralized location where patients can get assistance with travel needs like finding transportation, booking lodging and setting up child care.
The Regional Logistics Center is operated jointly by Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion clinic just over the Missouri border in Granite City. Designated case managers there can arrange travel, connect patients with financial assistance, help them find a place to stay and overcome other common logistical barriers to accessing abortion, particularly when traveling long distances.
