An increasing number of people are coming to Illinois in search of abortion care in the two years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling. 

Planned Parenthood of Illinois says 25% of its patients are from out of state — compared to about 4% pre-Dobbs. 

While clinics say they were prepared for the influx, the future of all reproductive care is still uncertain. 

Michele Landeau, chief operating officer of Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, said her clinic began to make changes to their services in anticipation of Dobbs two years ago

“Specifically, we have added on an entire day of clinics,” she said. “So we increased our clinic days from five days a week to six days a week. We do offer medication and in-clinic abortions on all of those days, as well as increased our staffing capacity by 40%.” 

Leslie Moore Hicks, associate medical director for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said their clinics have also needed to take the same steps, adding that they have been seeing patients at varying stages of pregnancy.

“But we do have services in place to assist those patients with other partnerships,” she said. “So we do work very closely with our behavioral health staff, our abortion navigators to help our patients, the minute they call us, we try to figure out the best way for those patients to be seen.” 

Jocelynn Gil, assistant health center manager for Planned Parenthood of Illinois in south suburban Flossmoor, said the increase in patients has also brought a different set of challenges for those looking for reproductive care.

“Travel, work, not being able to take the time off, childcare, along with the additional expenses of lodging, food,” Gil said. “Those are all things that we have seen. And thankfully, we do have additional resources and programs to help these patients.”