As we’ve covered previously here at RedState, earlier this year, Missouri passed a “Heartbeat Bill” which is one of the strongest pro-life measures in the nation.  As described by Representative Nick Schroer, who sponsored the bill:

“It starts off with a roughly eight-week abortion ban, once the heartbeat or brain activity can be detected in the child,” Schroer explained. “If, for any reason, any court were to overturn that, we have a tiered severance package which would kick it to a 14-week ban.”

If that limit, “which is linked to our scientific and legislative findings,” he said, also were blocked by a court, the law moves the limit to 18 weeks, then to 20 weeks.

The bill also would “ban abortions in the state of Missouri if, for any reason, Roe v. Wade is overturned (or) the Supreme Court dictates that it is going to be up to the states to legislate in the area of abortion,” Schroer said.

The bill’s provisions include allowing criminal charges to be filed against a doctor who performs a nonemergency abortion, with a potential prison sentence ranging from five to 15 years.

The measure includes an exception for an abortion in an emergency situation, but it does not include any exceptions for an unwanted pregnancy caused by rape or incest.

Since the bill was signed into law by Governor Mike Parson on May 24, 2019, it has, not surprisingly, faced legal challenges. One of the biggest ongoing battles has been the contention by Planned Parenthood that its lone abortion clinic in the state would be forced to shut down under the new law.

Don’t worry overmuch, though. A new “mega clinic” has sprung up nearby – just across the river in Illinois:

Less than 15 miles from the border of Missouri, a state that is barely holding on to its last abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood has quietly erected one of the largest abortion clinics in the nation.

The 18,000-square-foot “megaclinic,” which will open later this month, was constructed in Fairview Heights, Illinois, and is equipped to provide services to 11,000 patients, Planned Parenthood announced Wednesday. CBS News first reported the clinic’s opening.

“Quietly.”  Why “quietly“?

The new clinic has been in construction for more than a year but was built in secret to avoid protesters and delay, officials said.

“Unfortunately, just given all of the stigma associated with abortion care and the targeted regulations against abortion providers, we needed to make the decision to open this facility in secrecy just like many other Planned Parenthoods around the country had to do in order to protect the project and be able to complete it on schedule, because we know that there is so much significant unmet need for family planning and abortion care around our region,” Rodriguez said.

A Post-Dispatch reporter who visited the site Wednesday morning found no signage inside or out indicating it was to be a Planned Parenthood facility. The head construction worker said he only found out Tuesday. Plans on the table were labeled generically “Medical Office Building.”

Yeah. Heaven forbid residents of the surrounding community be informed of the “mega clinic” springing up in their midst. Wouldn’t want them to have any say in it or anything. Democracy may die in darkness; secrecy thrives in it.

Here was the real kicker for me, though.  Local radio host Annie Frey posted a link to this article on her Facebook page yesterday:

STL Radio Host Annie Frey (97.1 FM Talk) on new Planned Parenthood facility.

A “regional haven” for abortion access. That sounds so…warm and fuzzy. If only those hellbent on “quietly” erecting megaclinics so as to avoid the associated stigma were as concerned with providing a haven for the lives their temples will be snuffing out.

I hear ya, Annie, but it’s hard to be still on this.

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