The Rockford Family Planning Center, an Illinois abortion clinic opened Jan. 6, has provided over 400 pill abortions in its first six months of operation, with nearly half of the patients coming from Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.
In June 2022, Dr. Dennis Christensen, a mostly retired obstetrician-gynecologist from Madison, purchased properties for both the pill abortion clinic at 611 Auburn St. and a second site at 4236 Maray Drive that will provide surgical abortions in addition to pill abortions and related care.
Of the 403 women who have so far received abortions at the Rockford Family Planning Center, 213 have been from Illinois, 180 have been from Wisconsin, and 10 have been from Iowa or elsewhere.
The FDA expanded access to pill abortions in states like Minnesota and Illinois, where abortion remains legal, earlier this year.
The Rockford Family Planning Foundation initially planned to open the second clinic by this spring but planning and remodeling have taken longer than expected.
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin staff have been working at the Planned Parenthood of Illinois abortion clinic in Waukegan, north of Chicago, and have seen a 54% increase in abortion patients there from a year earlier. Minnesota had a 20% increase in abortions in 2022 compared to 2021, including a 38% increase in patients from Wisconsin.
This month, a Dane County judge ruled that Wisconsin’s 1849 law, widely interpreted as banning abortions except to save the mother’s life, does not apply to consensual abortions. The case is expected to be appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court next month.
