Table of Contents
About the Clinic
Danville’s Sanctuary City Ordinance
Health Inspection Reports
What Can Be Done
A new abortion clinic will be opening its doors sometime this November just 15 minutes from the Indiana state border in Illinois. The abortion facility, Affirmative Care Solutions, was formerly operating in Indianapolis under the name “Clinic for Women.” For almost every city in Indiana, the new facility location is under a 3-hour drive away, making it one of the nearest locations for Indiana women to get an abortion.
Affirmative Care Solutions boasts its mission, “to deliver healthcare services that affirm the dignity and worth of every individual. We believe that every person should have access to the highest standard of care, regardless of their age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status.”
At Right to Life of Northeast Indiana, we also affirm the dignity and worth of every individual and believe every person deserves the highest standard of care regardless of age, gender, race, or socioeconomic status. We believe, of course, that such principles apply at conception, and that abortion violates the dignity and worth of children by stripping them of their right to life, taking advantage of them due to their age, and often due to their gender, race, or socioeconomic status.
Affirmative Care Solutions offers abortions up to 16 weeks gestation. They distribute the abortion pill until week 11 gestation and offer surgical abortions for weeks 11-16 of pregnancy. In Illinois, minors are permitted to have abortions without parental consent. Their website suggests that teens visit sites such as “Youth Abortion Support Collective” and “Sex, Etc.” for more information on abortion. They highlight resources for different states where someone seeking an abortion could find financial assistance, including the “Hoosier Abortion Fund,” which exists to help pay for expenses for Hoosiers seeking abortions out of state.
Affirmative Care Solutions claims that they offer options counseling to women seeking care in their clinic and are there to provide information for patients to make an informed decision about their pregnancy. When describing the procedure of a surgical abortion, they only refer to the baby as, “pregnant tissue.” Without having true and accurate medical information, how can women be expected to make truly informed decisions surrounding their pregnancy?
Danville, where Affirmative Care Solutions is located, voted in 2023 to pass a Sanctuary City Ordinance, which does not explicitly ban abortion in the city but requires compliance with federal statutes on abortion that prohibit the mailing or receiving of abortion-inducing drugs or paraphernalia. However, the ordinance was contingent on the United States Supreme Court ruling on the Comstock Act, which the Court has yet to do, making abortion still legal in Danville.
The Comstock Act of 1873 is a federal law that criminalizes the involvement of the United States Postal Service in obscene matters and articles used to produce abortion. A literal interpretation of the Act could potentially apply to all abortion materials, not just medication abortions.
The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice has determined that the Comstock Act only applies when the sender intends for the material sent to be used for an illegal abortion. Still, because there are legal uses of abortion to save the life of the mother in every state, there is no way to determine the intent of the sender. With the upcoming administration change, this could be interpreted differently.
The city of Danville could face serious legal battles costing millions if they were to enforce the ordinance. Abortion is legal in Illinois up until “fetal viability” which Illinois defines as “anywhere from 24-26 weeks.” In Illinois, there is no required waiting period, ultrasound viewing, or state-mandated information about abortion required to be given to the client.
Health inspection reports that were done when the clinic was located in Indianapolis report shockingly unsafe conditions for women seeking abortion services there. The clinic violated multiple safety conditions, including the failure to properly clean and sanitize intracavitary vaginal ultrasound probes from use from woman to woman, failure to provide a safe environment that would mitigate chances of infection exposure and risk, expired medical supplies, and no documented plans for emergencies of any kind.
Google reviews of the clinic complain about the lack of safety and compassion. One reviewer writes, “There was little to no compassion to us, the women who were there to make a difficult choice. It was business as usual was the feeling of it. Very cold and straightforward. I would highly NOT recommend a medical abortion. It is gruesome and messy. And for the cost and the treatment of this place was terrible.”
What can be done about the opening of this abortion clinic designed to target Indiana women?
Prayer for the end to abortion, for post-abortive ministries, for the men and women facing unplanned pregnancies, for Affirmative Care Solutions employees, and for Danville and Illinois to enact and enforce legislation to protect life.
Join our growing Sidewalk Advocate team here in Fort Wayne, as Planned Parenthood will likely begin referring women to this clinic to receive abortions. The clinic is just a three-hour drive from Fort Wayne and less than three hours from many other Northeast Indiana counties.
If you know anyone in the Danville area, encourage them to start a sidewalk advocacy program outside the clinic. Reach out to local churches in the Danville area and inform them of the clinic’s opening and the urgent need for sidewalk advocates to be able to offer women life-affirming services in the area.
Donate to RLNI to keep up to date on pro-life news and ways to protect the lives of the unborn in Indiana.
