New owner has legal appeal against Texas with U.S. Supreme Court
After more than four decades providing first trimester abortions for women in central Illinois, National Health Care Services on North University Street has been sold to an organization based in Texas.
Whole Woman’s Health is now operating the Peoria clinic at 7405 N. University St. Whole Woman’s Health was founded in 2003 and has a number of abortion clinics in five states, according to its web page.
Founder, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health Amy Hagstrom Miller sued the state of Texas over a law that would restrict access to abortion by requiring abortion clinics to have hospital-like facilities, hospital-like standards and physicians with admitting privileges at local hospitals. In 2013, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas sided with the state, and Hagstrom Miller appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court chooses to hear her case, it could be scheduled for the next session.
“It is my life’s work to end the stigma around abortion and to provide service in our Whole Woman’s Health clinics that transforms healthcare, one woman at a time,” Hagstrom Miller states on her website.
Margaret Van Duyn, clinic director at National Health Care Services, was not available for comment. There was no response to an inquiry seeking comment from Whole Woman’s Health.
According to information posted online, Whole Woman’s Health Peoria clinic now provides abortion care including abortion pill and surgical abortions, birth control, walk-in emergency contraception and individual and family counseling services.