QC Examiner
Individuals looking for abortion information in the Quad Cities need to be aware that there are many fake clinics run by fundamentalist organizations dedicated solely to turning you away from abortion.
This page contains information about pregnancy related options and advice for individuals concerned about their pregnancy in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
There are numerous options and services available for individuals seeking assistance or information for a pregnancy. These include:
We highly recommend avoiding any pregnancy clinic and go only to a regular doctor at a regular hospital. There are many organizations that operate “health clinics” that are not properly regulated, inspected, or licensed, and may or may not have a licensed medical doctor on their staff.
However if you are considering abortion, it is advised that you do not tell anyone if you are located in a US State where abortion may become illegal.
The nearest clinics that offer truly unbiased health information are located in Iowa City and Chicago, including the Emma Goldman Clinic and Planned Parenthood. There are no clinics that offer abortion as an option in Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline, or Rock Island at this time.
Be warned: Many organizations with pleasant-sounding names such as “Pregnancy Health Clinic Quad Cities” or “Women’s Options Center” are not legitimate health clinics (* These names are not real examples of these organizations at the time of this writing, but are provided to illustrate the types of names you may expect.)
These clinics are not legitimate because they are fronts for anti-abortion organizations that will firmly persuade people against pregnancy termination, even if it would be best for the mother. These clinics may offer some ancillary services such as PAP smears, ultrasounds, and pregnancy test, but their primary purpose is to scare people away from all their pregnancy options.
Be very careful, because they will often use nice-sounding messages such as “we want to respect your health and safety”, yet often they will do the opposite.
There are many reasons a woman may choose to abort a pregnancy. In 75% of cases it is for a reason of the health of the mother or a situation such as rape or incest. Some of the most common reasons for terminating a pregnancy include:
The best way to prevent abortion is proper and thorough sexual health education, so that only individuals intending to get pregnant do so.
There are many theories about anti-abortion activism. It strong appears that religious fundamentalist beliefs fuel a desire to control women so that there is a lesser-class of citizens among us.
There’s no diagnosis of post-abortion syndrome in either the International Classification of Diseases or the recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
On the contrary, research overwhelmingly suggests abortion does not, in most cases, cause a trauma response or contribute to any lingering distress.
Most women who have an abortion may have mixed feelings, but the overall feeling tends to be a sense of relief. Most women do not get abortions “just because”. There are often strong and compelling reasons to terminate pregnancy.
What you could experience:
What is a pill-based abortion?
There are pills, called Plan C, that include Mifepristone and Misoprostol, that can stop a pregnancy up to ten weeks in. These medications stop a pregnancy from growing. They cause cramping and bleeding to empty the uterus. It is similar to having a miscarriage. In some European countries up to 90% of abortions are done using pills.
Is abortion safe?
Abortion pills have been FDA-approved for more than 20 years. They are safer than taking Tylenol.
Studies show them to be 98% effective at ending a pregnancy.
However, be aware of legal risks of getting these pills on your own. No one should ever be punished for providing their own medical care. But, since 2000, at least 60 people who have self-managed an abortion or have helped someone else are known to have been arrested or prosecuted. Those who are already at greater risk of criminalization because of their race, gender identity, economic status, or other factors may have a higher risk of prosecution. People who live in very conservative states also face a higher risk of prosecution. A few states even have laws that say that self-managing an abortion is illegal.
Those who choose to use abortion pills on their own do not have to tell anyone that they took abortion pills (and doing so may increase the risk of prosecution).