Planned Parenthood announces ‘mega’ abortion clinic for Illinois
Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri announced that they were nearing completion of a new 18,000-square foot facility in Illinois.
The Planned Parenthood chapter released a statement on Wednesday noting that the new clinic is scheduled to begin offering services by mid-October.
“We are thrilled to be able to better serve our patients through this new center, both in Southern Illinois and around the region,” said Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood chapter, in a statement.
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“Close to 5,000 people sought care at our Fairview Heights health center last year alone, and this new center will allow us to serve even more.”
The new facility is expected to replace an older health center and will offer both surgical abortions and medication-induced abortions, as well as other family planning services.
Illinois Right to Life Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr denounced the creation of what she called a “mega-facility” aimed at filling “the gaping hole they’re seeing in their bottom line.”
“The increase in pro-life laws across the country coupled with President Trump’s Protect Life Rule has undoubtedly had a devastating impact on Planned Parenthood’s abortion revenue,” said Knorr in a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday.
“This is a money-making venture, and Illinois is the most abortion-friendly state in the country. The construction of this new facility was a strategic business move – certainly not a defense of women.”
Knorr also stated that her organization will continue to “fight the abortion industry that” due to current state politics “has been allowed to tighten its death grip on our state once again.”
“We will continue to fight to expose Planned Parenthood’s lies, manipulations, and their deep-seated hatred for the most vulnerable members of our human race,” she added.
In June, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed The Reproductive Health Act, or Senate Bill 25, into law. The measure codified the right to an abortion and denied “independent rights” to an unborn baby at any stage of a pregnancy.
Gov. Pritzker argued in a statement released at the time that the new state law was a “giant step forward for women’s health.”
“The Reproductive Health Act ensures that women's rights in Illinois do not hinge on the fate of Roe v. Wade, or the whims of an increasingly conservative Supreme Court. In this state, women will always have the right to reproductive health care,” he stated.
Peter Breen, former Illinois representative and vice president of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement in June that the new law sent the state “back to the dark ages.”
“The legacy of this governor, and any legislator who voted to pass this law, will be that of cruel dehumanization of unborn Illinoisans on a mass scale,” said Breen.
“They will bear the legacy of thousands of late-term dismemberment abortions inflicted on perfectly healthy, viable children.”
