Planned Parenthood just announced a brand new ‘mega clinic’ facility in southern Illinois, as first reported by CBS News. The news agency, which went behind the scenes at the clinic while it was still under construction, says that the facility is 180,000 square feet. That makes it one of the largest abortion clinics in the entire nation. Notably, it’s also a mere 13 miles away from the sole clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, which, along with being overworked, is battling to keep operating. We’ll loop back to why that’s so important after we go over the specifics on this new facility.
"We were really intentional and thoughtful about making sure that we were able to complete this project as expeditiously as possible because we saw the writing on the wall — patients need better access, so we wanted to get it open as quickly as we could," Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis region and Southwest Missouri, told CBS News.
That makes sense! The big question: How does one build an enormous facility and keep it a secret? Apparently, use a shell company. Planned Parenthood constructed the new facility on the former site of a medical office. It’s not too surprising why the organization would want to do this in secret: to avoid protesters, delays, and even companies refusing to work with them.
Do organizations really refuse to work with Planned Parenthood? According to McNicholas, it’s a serious problem. She told CBS News that other Planned Parenthood clinics experienced countless frustrations and delays when people learned who was behind them. For example, companies refused to install phone lines, and construction firms refused to deliver orders. Doing it in secret allowed the organization to make progress—fast.
As a quick review of the seemingly endless assault on reproductive health, it’s impossible to get into the grit of it without talking about Missouri. Remember the note about how this new clinic is just 13 miles from the existing one in St. Louis? That’s no coincidence.