As the Democratic National Convention takes place in Chicago, delegates and attendees don't only have the opportunity to participate in ceremonial political traditions — but they can also get a free vasectomy or medication abortion. That’s because Planned Parenthood’s mobile abortion clinic has been parked blocks away from the event, making headlines and causing some mixed reactions. Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, (R-Ga.), wrote on X that the clinic is “hard to even comprehend” and “truly heartbreaking.”

But despite being viewed by some as a political statement, or even controversial by some, mobile abortion clinics have played a key role in the post-Dobbs landscape: they’ve helped to reduce travel times for women who have to travel out of state to access abortion care.

“Health care has changed so much in the last couple of years, certainly starting with COVID and now exacerbated by the abortion access crisis,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri in St. Louis, told Salon in a phone interview. “I think providers need to be thoughtful about how we are pivoting and how we are making our services more accessible.”

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In October 2022, Planned Parenthood announced it was launching its first mobile abortion clinic to increase access at red-state borders. The goal was to reduce the hundreds of miles that people may have to travel in light of restrictive abortion laws. At the mobile clinic, which was set up inside an RV, Planned Parenthood clinicians offered........

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