Abortion providers create mobile centers along border of state banning procedures

Amna Nawaz:

In some parts of the country, access to abortion care depends on how far a person can travel. Missouri has banned the procedure.

But, in neighboring Illinois, abortion remains legal, and providers there will soon be working along the state border to be able to reach more patients.

"PBS NewsHour" communities correspondent Gabrielle Hays joins us with more on the abortion landscape in the Midwest.

Gabby, it's good to see you.

So, abortion outlawed in Missouri for more than six months now, no exceptions for rape or incest, limited exceptions for medical emergencies, we should say.

In that time, as you have been reporting, what have you seen in terms of both how many people are actually seeking abortion access and how providers are meeting that need?

Gabrielle Hays:

Yes, absolutely.

Well, the first thing is, 100 days after Roe fell, providers — Planned Parenthood made the announcement that they would be launching a mobile clinic at the Southern Illinois border. And I should say, that's the first time that they have ever done anything like that.

Providers there tell me that is in response not only to a stark rise in people looking for care, but also it serves as a symbol of their act of defiance in a post-Roe era, is what I was told. And so that mobile clinic, I'm told, is set to launch in the coming months, and that it will start with medication abortions, before transitioning into procedural abortions.

But I think again we're talking about a state band where people are traveling from all over the state, so across our western border. We also know that Kansas now has telemedicine abortions. And providers there tell me they're — when they look at their parking lot, they're seeing license plates from all over the country, because people are coming there to utilize their resources.

But it's also important to note that those things come with stipulations, right? So you have to be in Kansas in order to utilize the telemedicine abortions. And so I think, although it's not legal in the state of Missouri, the states around us are trying to figure out a way to provide those resources to people who are looking for care.

Amna Nawaz:

Gabby, but, in Missouri, we're talking about abortion being outlawed, right? But in the state of Missouri, what about access to other kinds of reproductive care? What does that look like right now?

Gabrielle Hays:

Yes, absolutely. It's a good question, because the one thing that providers have stressed to me is that we're not only looking at a heightened sense of trying to figure out where people can find access to abortion, but access to health care, period.

And there's an emphasis on rural areas. In the state of Missouri, according to the state's own data, we're looking at 33 percent of people in our state living in a rural county. That's more than two million people, right, and so two million people looking for access to all kinds of care.

And so Planned Parenthood recently took over a clinic in Rolla, Missouri. And that's where they're hoping to provide access to other types of reproductive care to people who live in rural Missouri. And I'm told that they are hoping, moving forward, to be able to expand to vasectomies and other types of care in that area.

Amna Nawaz:

Gabby, in about the minute or so we have left, we know that abortion ban in Missouri is being challenged. Where do those challenges stand right now?

Gabrielle Hays:

Absolutely.

Well, just days before the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, we had 13 clergy members from six different faith backgrounds who filed a lawsuit here in Missouri challenging the abortion ban. And what they're arguing is that it is unconstitutional because it takes one religious doctrine and imposes it on everybody else.

And so we will be following — following that lawsuit closely. But that is the latest challenge here in Missouri.

Amna Nawaz:

That is our "PBS NewsHour" communities correspondent, Gabrielle Hays, reporting for us.

Gabby, thank you so much.

And you can read more of Gabby's reporting on abortion access online at PBS.org/NewsHour.