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 Claire Chretien / LifeSiteNews

(LifeSiteNews) – Abortion giant Planned Parenthood announced plans this week to circumvent state pro-life laws via a new “mobile abortion clinic” in yet another example of disseminating abortions taking precedence over patient safety.

NPR reported that the “clinic,” set to roll out later this year, will consist of a small waiting area, lab, and two examination rooms inside of an RV. At first it will dispense abortion pills up to 11 weeks of pregnancy, but Planned Parenthood intends to eventually use it for surgical abortions, as well.

The initial plan is to operate the RV within left-wing Illinois, where legal abortion-on-demand remains secure, and travel to locations around the borders with neighboring pro-life states, reducing the time and distance for abortion seekers to travel. The states it is intended to undermine include Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee.

“It gives us a lot of flexibility about where to be,” Yamelsie Rodriguez, the president of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told NPR.

While the U.S. Supreme Court’s June overturn of Roe v. Wade was an enormous victory for the pro-life movement, leading to the activation and restoration of scores of state abortion bans, the issue remains far from resolved.

National Democrats support both codifying a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would erase virtually every state protection for the preborn, and promoting legal protection and financial assistance for interstate travel from abortion-free states to abortion-friendly ones, to get around the laws of pro-life states.

Pro-life groups such as the Thomas More Society and the National Association of Christian Lawmakers are currently exploring potential policies to counteract the problem, though any state-level response will likely face difficult legal challenges. Regardless, pro-lifers say the problem highlights the need for abortion bans in states that don’t yet have them, and for settling the issue in every state by eventually passing a federal ban.

As for the safety of these mobile services, abortions by pill are particularly risky, especially when taken without a medical professional present.

“This prevents a doctor from being able to determine how far along the pregnancy is or rule out a dangerous ectopic pregnancy,” the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists says. “It also prevents adequate screening for coercion or intimate partner violence, both of which are common in women seeking abortions. Symptoms of a rupturing ectopic pregnancy mimic symptoms from a chemical abortion. If this causes a delay in diagnosis of even a few hours, it can be catastrophic.”

An open letter in 2020 from a coalition of pro-life groups to former U.S. Food & Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn noted that the FDA’s own adverse reporting system says the “abortion pill has resulted in over 4,000 reported adverse events since 2000, including 24 maternal deaths. Adverse events are notoriously underreported to the FDA, and as of 2016, the FDA only requires abortion pill manufacturers to report maternal deaths.”

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