The fresh LaDonna Prince reproductive care clinic in Illinois was scheduled to open more than a year ago.
Prince and her staff were prepared for Indiana’s abortion ban and began trying to move the operation to Danville, Illinois, in 2023. That’s about 90 minutes from her elderly clinic in Indianapolis, which had provided abortion care for more than 40 years earlier. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed states to regulate access to abortion. Currently, 12 states – including Indiana – have near-total abortion bans, and four states have six-week bans before many people realize they are pregnant.
Now, with abortion access across the country at risk of being threatened by President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration and Republican-controlled houses of Congress, Prince is determined to open a clinic in early 2025.
“Honestly, it’s terrifying,” Prince said during a news conference in early December. “It’s just really scary.”
Prince’s clinic, Affirmative Care Solutions, is one of the few independent clinics in the country to open, while many others have closed their doors for various reasons. According to a fresh report published by the Abortion Care Network, 76 stationary independent abortion clinics were closed between 2022 and 2024, including 11 in 2024 alone.
The report also found that 70% of closures during this two-year period occurred in the South and Midwest. In addition to those forced to leave because of the statewide ban, the report said staffing issues and lack of funding were factors that led others to close.
Lack of funding for abortion care is widespread. Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country have reported degenerating donations and cuts in state funding, leaving them in a precarious position. The Abortion Care Network announced in August that their donations dropped by one third. The network provides grants for infrastructure projects that aid keep clinics afloat, such as building repairs, supplies, equipment and safety.
The report found that approximately 58% of all abortions in the United States are performed in independent clinics rather than in a Planned Parenthood-affiliated facility or hospital, and more than 60% of clinics that perform abortions after the first trimester are independent. The only clinics in the country that perform abortions after 26 weeks are also independent. The huge majority of abortions occur in the first trimester, but this is the case in the third trimester sometimes necessary.
The co-owner of a Kentucky clinic is trying to put everything together to reopen it quickly
Although Illinois has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, Prince quickly faced resistance from local officials, including the mayor, who in a tie-breaking vote passed a city ordinance aimed at preventing the clinic from providing abortion services in Danville. Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said local news site WCIA at the time the regulation responded to the clinic’s relocation, it stated: “This is not any type of comprehensive women’s health care. It’s literally an abortion clinic.”
Prince said the ordinance is unenforceable due to state law, but that hasn’t changed the attitude of local government officials. This all preceded an attack on the clinic by a 73-year-old man who crashed his truck into the building and attempted to set it on fire during renovations in May 2023, causing over $500,000 in damage and further delaying the clinic’s opening.
Earlier this month, Prince tried to hire a plumber, but he told her he wouldn’t do any work for her because he didn’t believe in abortion.
“It’s not easy to find people who are even willing to do this work, and it’s a business that isn’t even open yet,” she said.
The Abortion Care Network provides funding to cover infrastructure needs at independent abortion clinics, and in the report the organization regrets all of the recent clinic closures – because once a clinic closes, it is often extremely tough to reopen, even in a state with laws that allow broad access.
That’s why at least one independent clinic in a state with a near-total abortion ban is trying to preserve existing infrastructure to make it easier to open if abortion becomes legal again. Ona Marshall, co-owner of EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, Kentucky, said the center provided abortion medications and care for 43 years before it was forced to close, and performed the most abortions in the state.
Marshall cited A fresh lawsuit filed in Kentucky in November, it sought to overturn the state’s ban, saying it was good news that could ultimately allow the clinic to reopen one day, but such legal proceedings could take years. In the meantime, he’s trying to put the pieces of the clinic together so he can reopen it quickly if that day comes.
“When you surrender your license in a hostile state, depending on whether there is an anti-abortion governor, that governor may deny you a license without good cause, which will require months of additional court challenges with no guarantee of victory,” Marshall said during a news conference. “You are taking great personal and financial risks in a highly volatile and politically charged environment, so it is extremely important to try to keep as many clinics open as possible.”
