Nashville’s closest abortion clinic is now a three-hour drive away

An abortion clinic in southern Illinois saw its first patients Tuesday.

The town of Carbondale is the closest place to get an abortion for many in neighboring states — like Tennessee — that have banned the procedure. But the town wasn’t equipped to handle the wave of out-of-state abortion patients when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer.

Memphis-based Choices is the first to open a clinic there, though a Texas-based abortion provider and a Tulsa Women’s Clinic intend to do the same. Planned Parenthood hasn’t confirmed a Carbondale location, but it has said it plans to open a mobile clinic in southern Illinois by the end of the year.

The Choices clinic will only be providing medication abortions to start, but it hopes to add surgical abortion in the coming months.

In addition to abortions, the clinic also plans to provide gender-affirming hormone therapy soon — healthcare that has also come under scrutiny by Tennessee lawmakers in recent weeks.