Planned Parenthood’s newest facility will be a massive 18,000 square-foot mega-clinic in Illinois. Construction began in August 2018 under a shell company in order to leave no public trace of the project. Once opened, the facility will be one of the largest abortion clinics in the country. According to CBS News, the secrecy surrounding the project was needed to squash public resistance:
“Other Planned Parenthood projects had run into problems once the public realized the construction was for an abortion provider. In one instance, a communications company had refused to install telephone and data lines; in another, a cabinet maker never delivered an order. In Birmingham, Alabama, protestors targeted Planned Parenthood’s suppliers, flooding their social media accounts with fake negative reviews.”
Unlike most areas in the bible belt, Illinois has expanded abortion access and loosened restrictions. Illinois provides abortion services to other surrounding states, including Missouri where only a single abortion clinic remains in operation. Anti-abortion groups call Illinois “the abortion capital of the Midwest”.
Planned Parenthood is a tax-exempt non-profit clinic. It conducted more than 330,000 abortions last year in about 600 clinics throughout the United States. The new Illinois facility should begin taking patients this month.