Planned Parenthood's Fairview Heights location has already seen a more than 100% increase in patients from outside both Missouri and Illinois in recent months. Patients have flooded in to the southern Illinois clinic following Texas' abortion ban in September and additional state-level restrictions across the country since.
"There are a lot of unknowns" and confusion for patients who live in states with immediate or expected restrictions, Shannon says. "We're trying to give them some reassurance that abortion is still legal in some states, and that we are here and willing to get them to a place where it is legal." The temporary block comes with both "relief" but also "an understanding there's a lot of work to do," says Amy Irvin, the media spokesperson for the Women's Health Care Center in New Orleans and Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge.
"It's an emotional roller coaster" and "very harrowing for staff, but also very confusing for patients," Irvin says.
MakeIt African Americans seeking their own destruction as they race toward abortion...