Dr. Allison Cowett is used to people preaching and protesting outside the West Loop clinic where she performs abortions. She knows who they are. She knows what to expect.
Sometimes that’s dozens of people parading around the sidewalks outside Cowett’s clinic, Family Planning Associates, trying to persuade women on their way inside not to end their pregnancies. Cowett said the noise isn’t as loud since the Chicago City Council this summer passed an ordinance to protect the clinic from the booming loudspeakers and bullhorns that could be heard inside the building, making it hard to hear conversations with patients.
But as Chicago prepares to host the Democratic National Convention at the United Center about two miles from Family Planning Associates, drawing an estimated 50,000 people, it’s the unknown that Cowett said makes her nervous.
“The out-of-state folks, the people that might be coming to Chicago with different intentions do introduce an element of uncertainty,” Cowett, medical director of Family Planning Associates, said inside her clinic. “Who will they be? … The potential for violence is worrisome.”
With Vice President Kamala Harris, an outspoken advocate on a woman’s right to choose, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the topic of abortion is on an even bigger stage right now.
Many abortion providers and advocates in Chicago are excited about the energy Harris brings to the campaign.
“I have been hoping for months that abortion would be front and center at the DNC, because I think it’s a motivating issue for voters throughout the electorate,” Cowett said. “It’s something that really differentiates the Democrats from the Republicans.”
As the convention nears, providers and advocates are mulling how to make sure patients can get to their appointments if traffic grinds to a halt, and that their facilities are safe. And they’re trying to figure out how to help cover some of the big bills patients might incur, like expensive hotel stays potentially rivaling prices seen when Taylor Swift and Beyonce performed in Chicago.
Illinois has become a bigger destination for patients, especially for those who live in the South and the Midwest, since those states banned abortion or made it harder to get after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade two years ago.
Family Planning Associates is one of the biggest independent abortion clinics in the country. The clinic is in a brick building along I-90, a straight drive from O’Hare International Airport. In other words, patients from other states can reach it somewhat easily, traffic aside. Cowett said the number of out-of-state patients has more than doubled since Roe fell. Now, about one in three patients comes from one of roughly 30 states.
While the clinic’s location near downtown might be ideal, Cowett is quick to point out that the journey is still expensive and time consuming. Sometimes patients have to miss work and hastily organize child care. Most women who have abortions are already mothers, research shows.
“They’re frankly sort of psychologically traumatized by having to travel such long distances,” Cowett said. “We see, frequently, people that have never left their home state, never been on a plane.”
Family Planning Associates already has a general safety plan, but plans to meet with its building security to firm up any additional needs during the convention, Cowett said. Clinic escorts in bright pink vests, who help usher patients in and out, might work extra hours and days.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department referred questions about potential safety plans for abortion clinics and providers to the city’s emergency management office. A spokeswoman for that office did not respond to comment.
Garry McCarthy, a former Chicago police superintendent, now runs a security firm and doubles as police chief in suburban Willow Springs. He questions if it’s worth the risk for abortion clinics to stay open during the DNC.
“I think they’re very vulnerable,” he said. “With that amount of people coming here, with tensions as they are, with people protesting, with abortion being one of the seminal issues now in the race, especially with now the presumptive Democratic candidate is Kamala Harris and she’s all over the right to choose … I don’t know if there’s a harm in giving it a couple of days.”
He acknowledges that closing could delay medical care for patients.
Cowett said the clinic, which treats at least 200 patients a week, would not consider closing.
“This type of sort of potential threat is something that we’re dealing with year-round,” Cowett said. “That doesn’t mean that we’re naive to what the possibilities are. It just means that we’re not going to be easily scared away.”
Some anti-abortion organizers said they aren’t planning big protests targeting clinics during the DNC, including Metro Praise International Church in Belmont Cragin. The church regularly marches around Family Planning Associates.
Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Pro-Life Action League, said his group will likely go out on overpasses on the Eisenhower expressway — the highway many travelers could drive on to get to the United Center — with large banners that call on the Democratic Party to reconsider its position on abortion.
“Our appeal is to the heart,” Scheidler said.
To help patients navigate to a clinic or a hospital for an abortion during the convention, providers and advocates say they will be frank with patients that traffic could be a mess. That could mean communicating that rideshares could take longer, for example, so they pack in more time to get to appointments.
The small percentage of people receiving abortions in a hospital for pregnancies complicated by conditions such as dangerously high blood pressure or a risk of hemorrhaging, typically book their procedures two weeks in advance. So they might decide to come before or after the DNC, said Dr. Laura Laursen, who co-leads a program in Chicago that helps patients schedule abortions at local hospitals.
The backdrop to all of these appointments, no matter in a clinic or a hospital, is money. The Chicago Abortion Fund, which helps patients cover the cost of everything from doctor’s appointments to hotel stays and plane tickets, is operating at a deficit and dipping into reserves to make sure no one is turned away, said Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the fund. Some national abortion funds are cutting back, too, she said.
And when the convention comes to Chicago, hotel costs could skyrocket. Qudsiyyah Shariyf, deputy director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said she learned that lesson during last year’s Taylor Swift concert, when hotel prices climbed to $600, $700 a night.
“That weekend we ended up spending over $30,000 on hotel stays, which is definitely more than we typically spend on hotels,” Shariyf said.
The fund used that experience to pre-book some hotel rooms for patients when Beyonce came to Chicago. As the DNC approaches, the abortion fund also is exploring partnerships with medical housing, Shariyf said.
“Our bottom line is to get people the care that they want and need in the ways that’s best for them,” Shariyf said. “We wouldn’t be discouraging people from coming here simply because of (the DNC).”