August 18, 2024

Planned Parenthood announced free medication abortions and vasectomies in Chicago this week.

by Julianne McShane
News & Engagement Writer

         Abortion is coming to the Democratic National Convention this week…and conservatives are not okay.

Access to reproductive health care—which both Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), have strongly supported—is sure to be front and center in some of the convention’s biggest speeches. Especially given its importance for voters and the fact that former President Donald Trump is responsible for appointing three of the five Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago, unleashing an avalanche of restrictions in over a dozen states.

But this week, the issue will not just be rhetorical, but literal as well. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which is based in neighboring Missouri, where abortion is banned, announced in a post on X earlier this week that it will be providing free medication abortions and vasectomies from a “mobile health clinic” in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago on Monday and Tuesday. That’s just under a mile northwest of the United Center, where many of the main DNC events will take place. By Saturday, Planned Parenthood announced that all the appointments had been filled—and, as you may expect, the right promptly began freaking out.

“I thought this was fake but it’s not,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X. “It’s hard to even comprehend and it’s truly heartbreaking.” Kristan Hawkins, head of the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America, argued that this action demonstrates the Democrats are “the party of death.” The right-wing Libs of TikTok account called it “demonic.” And a writer for the right-wing Daily Caller described the health clinic as “Kamala’s abortion bus”—though it was not requested by the Harris campaign, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to questions.

🧵 All free vasectomy and medication abortions are filled for our mobile health clinic in Chicago. Check back soon — we will share the interest form link again if we have cancellations. pic.twitter.com/o1biAPezZh
— Planned Parenthood Great Rivers (@ppgreatrivers) August 18, 2024

Despite these full-throated condemnations, there was surprisingly little discussion of abortion at the Republican National Convention, even though the party and Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) boast strong anti-abortion records. That’s likely because the right is aware of the political unpopularity of abortion bans, and Trump himself has said it’s important for Republicans to support exceptions in order to win in November.

New data released Wednesday by KFF shows that nearly three-quarters of US women who are of reproductive age think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with 70 percent supporting a nationwide right to abortion. And as I have written, Republicans are trying to trick voters—and mainstream media—into thinking they are “softening” on the issue.

But the free mobile reproductive healthcare offered in Chicago only further underscores the differences between Democrats and Republicans—who have also threatened access to contraception and IVF. Abortion restrictions have led to maternity care deserts in red states, and experts have warned abortion bans will worsen maternal mortality, as my colleague Abby Vesoulis reported. In Texas, that appears to have already happened. As my colleague Nina Martin reported, a recent study found that there was a massive spike in infant mortality in Texas following the implementation of its six-week abortion ban, SB8, in 2022.

“There are going to be people traveling to Chicago from all over the country,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, told the New York Times, “and I think we should be doing what we can as health care providers to show what the impact of good policy and bad policy is.”

Update, Aug. 18: This post was updated with new information about the location of the mobile health clinic and its distance to the United Center.