New Rockford abortion clinic opens; second location gets building permit
Women can find legal abortion services in Rockford for the first time in more than a decade.
Rockford Family Planning Center — Auburn Street saw its first patient on Friday.
The office at 611 Auburn St. is operated by obstetrician, gynecologist and abortion provider Dr. Dennis Christensen of Wisconsin and managed by Meg Larkin of Rockford with the help of a registered nurse.
"Our website just went up, people are just starting to hear of us and we expect things to move quickly once word gets out," Larkin said.
The facility offers pregnancy dating and confirmation, pregnancy counseling, first-trimester abortion medication, referrals for a second trimester surgical abortion and referrals for prenatal care if desired, according to its website at rfd-familyplanning.com.
Appointments are available on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and on Saturday mornings.
It is the first abortion provider in Rockford since the closure of the Northern Illinois Women's Center on Broadway in 2012. Christensen said he had operated that Rockford facility at one time but when he became too busy with his Wisconsin locations, he relinquished the practice to another doctor two years before it closed down.
Christensen came out of semi-retirement after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, eliminating what had for decades been a constitutional right to an abortion in the United States. He bought the Auburn Street building for $75,000 and a former animal hospital at 4236 Maray Drive for $350,000 in June, according to Winnebago County records.
The Auburn Street office offers medication-induced abortions for about $475 which are only available in the first trimester.
Plans are for the Maray Drive location — which will be operated by volunteers and activists as part of the Rockford Family Planning Foundation — to provide holistic medical services for women. Those services are expected to include medical and surgical abortions, birth control, sexually transmitted infection treatment and more.
Rockford issued a building permit for the Maray Drive location on Thursday and renovations have commenced.
"We are hoping to have it ready in three months," Christensen said.
Jeff Kolkey can be reached at (815) 987-1374, via email at jkolkey@rrstar.com and on Twitter @jeffkolkey.
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Abortion services return to Rockford for first time in a decade
