Daywatch: Two activist families fight contrasting abortion battles in Illinois, Indiana

Good morning, Chicago.

Every day, 19-year-old Hope Miller prays for an end to abortion.

The young woman from north suburban Hawthorn Woods was elated in June 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark Jan. 22, 1973, ruling that had guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy nationwide for nearly a half-century.

Yet as the anniversary of the now-defunct decision approaches, Miller is thinking bigger.

“We want abortion gone completely,” said the College of Lake County student. “We want it illegal across the nation.”

Miller is a third-generation anti-abortion activist, the granddaughter of the late Joseph Scheidler, who founded the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League and was widely known across the country as the “godfather of pro-life activism.”

Just over the state line in northwest Indiana, another family is fighting a diametrically opposite battle to restore reproductive freedoms in a part of the country where they’ve recently been stripped.

For years, Julie Storbeck and a small group of protesters have gathered every Tuesday at the Porter County Courthouse to rally in support of abortion rights. She is president of the Indiana National Organization for Women, a pro-reproductive rights group that has condemned the state’s near-total abortion ban, which went into effect in August.

Her daughter Hannah Trueblood, 29, has also taken up the cause of reproductive justice, often demonstrating against abortion restrictions alongside her mother. In November, Trueblood also ran for mayor of Valparaiso on a platform that promoted reproductive rights.

As the anniversary of Roe approaches, the two families of intergenerational activists both face formidable challenges in their adjacent states, where laws and politics are largely hostile to their respective missions.

Read more on this story from Angie Leventis Lourgos.

Here are the top stories you need to know to start your day.

Subscribe to more newsletters | Puzzles & Games | Today’s eNewspaper edition

Ron DeSantis ends presidential bid on eve of N.H. primary and endorses Donald Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign on Sunday, ending his 2024 White House bid just before the New Hampshire primary while endorsing his bitter rival Donald Trump.

‘Locked in’: Chicagoans who use wheelchairs, mobility aids struggle to navigate city’s sidewalks during snowstorm

While T.J. Gordon has used a walking stick consistently for the past two years due to chronic leg pain, he typically relies on his legs and public transportation to get him where he needs to go in the summer.

But winter is harder, the 36-year-old research associate said.

Edgar Naranjo was freed after serving half of a 40-year sentence. Critics say his case shows what’s wrong with the felony murder law.

For his role in a home invasion, Edgar Naranjo wound up with a 40-year prison sentence under Illinois’ felony murder rule, a controversial law that allows murder charges to be filed against a person committing certain felonies if someone is killed during the commission of those crimes.

But Naranjo caught a break. Halfway into his lengthy prison term, Naranjo was released in late October after being granted clemency by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Chicago-area man who sued women for badmouthing him on dating site convicted days later of tax fraud involving mob-connected sweepstakes kiosks

Chicago-area native Nikko D’Ambrosio made a national media splash earlier this month when he filed a lawsuit against dozens of women who allegedly bad-mouthed him on a tell-all Facebook dating page, describing him as “clingy,” a ghoster and a show-off with money.

Turns out D’Ambrosio’s dating reviews were the least of his worries.

South Loop alderman throws support behind new White Sox stadium after meeting with developer

The alderman whose ward includes the South Loop plot where the White Sox are reportedly exploring the possibility of building a new stadium threw her weight behind the emerging idea after meeting with the proposed project’s developers.

3 things we learned at Chicago Blackhawks practice, including Connor Bedard’s ‘pain in the butt’ obsession with ice time

Nick Foligno fully participated in the Chicago Blackhawks’ last practice Sunday before they jetted off to Vancouver for a four-game road trip.

Talking to reporters after practice, Foligno was no longer wearing a cast on his left ring finger, which he fractured during a fight with New Jersey Devil Brendan Smith after Smith hit Connor Bedard and broke his jaw.

Speaking of Bedard, he took part in some light skating drills with Samuel Savoie (broken right femur) as both young skaters rehab from their injuries.

Review: Anelya, where James Beard award-winning chefs have begun a new Ukrainian revolution in Chicago

When you see the zakusky carts at Anelya, the new Ukrainian-inspired restaurant in Avondale, they might raise an eyebrow. Even with the pedigree of James Beard award-winning chefs and spouses Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim, who also own Parachute just down Elston Avenue, Tribune critic Louisa Kung Liu Chu had to wonder.

Fans of Chicago Rat Hole rescue rodent-shaped crater on Roscoe Village sidewalk after someone had filled it in

Fans of the Chicago Rat Hole quickly banded together Friday to dig out the infamous rodent-shaped crater in Roscoe Village after someone had filled it in.

Onlookers discovered that the city’s newest tourist attraction — a hole in the sidewalk, with a skinny tail and only three paws — had been filled with a concrete slurry after a week in the spotlight once it went viral on a social media post.