New abortion clinics change blue-state towns near borders

A sign installation for Choices, a new abortion clinic in Carbondale,
Ill. (Photo by Erin Schaff, The New York Times via Redux Pictures)

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, small blue-state border towns are experiencing an increase in abortion clinic openings and an influx of visitors as women seek abortion services. Carbondale, Illinois, is one blue-state town where a Tennessee-based provider opened a clinic named Choices, reports Shia Kapos of Politico. "Choices is seeing a steady stream of abortion patients from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas since it set up space in a shuttered dermatology office last fall, its only location outside Memphis."

Choices CEO Jennifer Pepper told Kapos, “For towns like Carbondale in states that continue to have access to abortion and border states that don’t, how can you not be impacted by having two, three or four clinics pop up? There are thousands of people traveling through your town.”

Carbondale, Ill. (Google map)

Kapos writes: "For Carbondale, a college town of 22,000 people, geography had a lot to do with Choices’ new site: Illinois is bordered by five states that all have abortion laws more restrictive than its own, turning the Democratic-controlled state into a destination for those seeking the procedure since Roe v. Wade fell in June. . . . And with the influx of patients has come more customers at local restaurants, booked up hotels and other early measures of economic change, particularly in the Midwest and the West."

Alison Dreith of the Midwest Access Coalition, a fund that helps people access abortion care across the region, told Kapos, “The current hotel infrastructure can’t handle the needs of the university community, let alone the new and emerging abortion community. It’s something we know we have to face down the line.”

Conservatives have voiced worry over the phenomenon. Jeanne Ives, a former state representative who sits on the Illinois Right to Life board, told Kapos, "They come in for a quick in-and-out procedure, and a lot of abortions are not easy decisions. It basically makes it a drive-thru service decision and I think that’s shameful."

Meanwhile, border towns will continue to experience a higher demand for services. Mayor Rachel Medina of Cortez, Colo told Kapos, “What’s tough about border towns is that they’re rural and don’t have a lot of funding. Small towns take the brunt of it and can barely meet the needs of their own residents."