At a Free Mobile Clinic During the DNC, Appointments for Vasectomies Filled Faster Than for Abortion Pills
The Missouri Planned Parenthood affiliate brought its medical RV to Chicago and helped people get free healthcare.
Photo: Planned Parenthood Great Rivers AbortionPolitics Democratic National Convention
CHICAGO — About a mile from the Chicago arena where politicians gave primetime speeches at the glitzy Democratic National Convention, about two dozen people got free vasectomies and medication abortions in a parking lot.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers—the affiliate for the St. Louis region and Missouri Ozarks, where abortion is banned—brought its mobile clinic to the state to, yes, provide free care to Illinois residents on Monday and Tuesday. But the organization also wanted to show people that, even in a state where abortion is protected, there is still “tremendous need,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, told Jezebel.
There were 10 vasectomy slots available for Monday, and McNicholas said they filled up in about 24 hours and generated a waitlist. The men who came to the clinic and saw her colleague Dr. Margaret Baum were very grateful, she said. “Almost every single one of them shared a story about how they had been wanting this for so long, but they’re either uninsured or their insurance doesn’t cover it, and so they didn’t have access to it,” McNicholas said. (Insurance is required to cover birth control methods for women, not for men.) “Oftentimes there is financial support for folks who need abortion. Those same resources don’t exist for folks who are getting a vasectomy.”
The resources McNicholas is referring to are abortion funds, and the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) was on site to provide free emergency contraception pills. Every patient also got a coupon for a free hot dog from The Weiners Circle, which went viral this week for its Trump footlong that is, in fact, 3 inches. Both the clinic and CAF information table were outside INTO ACT!ON 2024, a non-partisan art and culture event to encourage voting. There was also an inflatable, 20-foot IUD outside from the group Americans for Contraception.