Small-town abortion clinic opening brings tensions to the surface
There had never been an abortion clinic in the quiet college town of Carbondale, Ill. So when its first clinic opened this fall, it revealed tensions between residents that had largelybeen hidden.
Regine Garmon, a Carbondale resident who works at the clinic, was standing on the sidelines of her son’s basketball game when she overheard a group of parents discussing the clinic’s opening. One mother wondered aloud if the clinic’s employees would encourage local teenagers to be sexually irresponsible.
“It’svery frustrating to think that this is what some people think of us,” Ms. Garmon said, “but we’re providing health care, we’re doing a goodthing.”
Mark Surburg, a pastor from the neighboring town of Marion, joined an early protest, watching workers arrive at the clinic. “It was a shock to realize that this is happening in ourown backyard,” he said.
Carbondale sits in the southernmost corner of Illinois, a place where most residents have largely avoided talking about abortion. But afterthe Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the town found itself in a prime location for abortion clinics looking to serve patients traveling from states where the procedure is now banned, including Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri. Carbondale now has two abortion clinics, including Ms. Garmon’s employer, Choices.
The town is a study in contradictions, not quite conservative or liberal. There is a LGBTQ community center down the road from a Southern Baptist church and a recreational marijuana dispensary next to a turn-of-the-century train depot. Rep. Mike Bost, a reliable ally of former President Donald Trump, has an office in Carbondale, yet the town voted Democrat in the past two presidential elections. Locals saySouthern Illinois University has brought a more diverse population to the city, which is still more than 60%white.
Choices opened in Memphis, Tenn., nearly half a century ago,
but as the specter of Roe ending loomed in recent years, Jennifer Pepper, the clinic’s CEO, said she knew the clinic would need a new location from which to offer abortion services. When Ms. Pepper and her team settled on Carbondale, they began tapping local community leaders to help smooth the transition.
“You come into somebody’s house, you need to introduce yourself, break bread with people,” Ms. Peppersaid.
Chastity Mays, a mother of three who has lived in Carbondale since 1994, helped make introductions. Ms. Mays, who works as a doula, coaching pregnant women through childbirth, set up lunches between Pepper’s team and Carbondale leaders like the police chief and city counselors.
The clinic’s staff said that some Carbondale residents had offered small tokens of support, bringing baked goods and encouraging notes to the clinic.
“That’s just the way Carbondale is,” Ms. Mays said, hailing the community as a place where residents readilyoffer each other help.
But at a Carbondale City Council meeting in May, opponents of abortion urged town leaders to prevent Choices, and any other abortion provider,from opening.
The room was so packed with local residents and people from surrounding towns that a second room wasneeded.
At the start of the meeting, the Council gave the public a chance to speak on any town issue. Jared Sparks, a Baptist pastor in Carbondale, was first to approach the microphone.
“Abortion is murder — those who do it are in violation of God’s law,” he said. The room erupted in applause as Mr. Sparks told the city councilors that they were “complicit in violence against, and the murder of, little boys and girls.”