With Roe overturned, Illinois — a Midwest refuge for abortion care — prepares for influx of patients from other states
Illinois’ role as a haven of abortion care in the Midwest was magnified Friday when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a watershed decision that reverses nearly a half-century of federally protected reproductive freedoms.
In the absence of Roe, the 1973 landmark case that guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy, the matter of abortion law falls to the states. Terminating a pregnancy is expected to be banned or significantly curtailed in roughly half of all states in the nation — including nearly every state in the Midwest.
Yet Illinois remains an oasis for those seeking the procedure, as abortion providers in many surrounding states prepare to shut down. Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2019 signed the Reproductive Health Act, ensconcing the “fundamental right” to terminate a pregnancy in state law.
“Abortion remains safe and legal in Illinois — that message needs to be heard all across the state,” said Ameri Klafeta, director of the Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. “Clinics that provide abortion in this state will remain open and patients can make appointments. Nothing that the court has done today reverses the hard work done by advocates in Illinois and legislators in Springfield over the past few years to assure that each person in Illinois has the right to make their own health care decisions, including abortion.”
Abortion opponents across the state rejoiced at the fall of Roe on Friday. Yet they also cautioned that Illinois would become even more of a destination for abortions, a source of deep shame to those who believe terminating a pregnancy is morally wrong.
“I feel tremendous joy in my heart that Roe v. Wade is history,” said Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League.
Yet he added that the impact on Illinois will be “devastating,” as the state will likely draw even more abortion patients from across the country.
“This is going to become an abortion mecca, by design,” he said. “This is what Planned Parenthood and J.B. Pritzker have been planning for years. My one ray of hope for Illinois is that the impact will be so visible that the people will push back against the extreme abortion regime in our state.”
Amy Gehrke, executive director of Illinois Right to Life, said her organization will be working with colleagues at pregnancy resource centers “to ensure that women have real, life-affirming options when facing unplanned pregnancies.”
“The Supreme Court has taken the bold and very appropriate step of allowing states to restore protection to the most innocent members of the human family, preborn children, as well as their mothers,” she said. “The double-edged sword of today’s ruling is that even more women will be coming to our state for abortions.”
Abortion providers across Illinois have been preparing for the massive influx in patients expected to travel here for the procedure. Planned Parenthood of Illinois anticipates an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients will be crossing state lines for abortion care here each year.
“Let me be clear, in Illinois abortion is and will remain legal,” said Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, in a written statement. “We expect every state that borders Illinois to quickly move to ban or severely restrict abortion access. Tens of thousands of people are now facing a terrible dilemma; flee to a state like Illinois to get an abortion, carry a pregnancy against their will or seek an illegal means to end their pregnancy.”
This is on top of the increasing number of patients who have already been traveling here to terminate a pregnancy in recent years, as nearby states enacted more restrictions on the procedure, including gestational limits, mandatory waiting periods and strict regulations on providers and clinics.
Nearly 10,000 patients crossed state lines to have an abortion in Illinois in 2020, according to the most recent Illinois Department of Public Health data available. This was a 29% increase compared with the number of patients who traveled 2019; the number of out-of-state patients coming to Illinois to terminate a pregnancy has risen every year since 2014, according to state health department data.
Clinics in nearby states have been grappling with the end of federal abortion rights, scrambling to determine how patients can still get abortion care.
In Wisconsin, Dr. Kristin Lyerly works at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Sheboygan, about 150 miles from Chicago, which suspended scheduling abortions after Saturday, in anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling.
“We are devastated,” said Lyerly, an obstetrician-gynecologist who has performed abortions there for six months and elsewhere in the state for about a decade. “So many of the patients we see are already at a huge disadvantage, whether that means financial, support, everything. And now they will have to travel and spend more. They just don’t have the resources to get the care that they need and deserve. I’m afraid they will do unsafe things out of desperation.”
The state to the north has an 1849 law that criminalizes abortions in most cases but was unenforceable since 1973, because of Roe.
She believes the majority of patients in Wisconsin will travel to Illinois, some to Minnesota.
Even before the demise of Roe, Wisconsin mandated a 24-hour waiting period to have abortion, requiring two separate appointments, one for counseling and the other to terminate the pregnancy.
“Over the last 10 years we have lost so much access,” she said. “But this is just a terrible final straw. Because abortion is health care. In greater society we see it as a political issue and it’s very polarizing. But within the scope of health care, this is just one of many challenging gray areas we deal with every day.”
Abortion opponents in Wisconsin celebrated the end of Roe on Friday.
“Pro-life advocates have worked tirelessly for decades to protect preborn life from abortion, and today we are overwhelmed with joy to witness Roe v. Wade being overturned,” said Heather Weininger, Wisconsin Right to Life executive director, in a written statement. “But our work does not end here. We must continue to fight for our state statute to remain unchanged, and we must demand that it be enforced. We must work even harder to advocate for mothers facing unexpected or challenging pregnancies, and provide more life-affirming resources so that intentionally ending the life of a preborn child becomes an unthinkable option.”
Facing the end of Roe v. Wade, a Tennessee abortion provider is opening a clinic in Carbondale, roughly three hours from Memphis and Nashville. CHOICES Memphis Center for Reproductive Health said on its website that the new southern Illinois clinic will offer both surgical and medication abortions.
“By the end of the year, Tennessee lawmakers will decimate abortion access in our state,” CHOICES said on its website. “But CHOICES has a bold plan to make sure that we can continue to provide high-quality reproductive health care in our Memphis community, take care of the 4,000 people a year who depend on us for abortion care and expand the footprint of our innovative whole-person model of care.”
In anticipation of the fall of Roe v. Wade, the Iowa Supreme Court earlier this month reversed a previous decision that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution, allowing lawmakers to ban or severely restrict the procedure. The Iowa ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by abortion providers fighting a 2020 measure requiring a 24-hour waiting period before a patient can get an abortion.
“We are deeply disappointed that the Iowa Supreme Court is abandoning women in spite of overwhelming support for abortion access,” said Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States, in a written statement. “Regardless of how we each feel about abortion, the decision to have an abortion is best left to a woman and her doctor.”
At the same time, the looming threat of the demise of Roe v. Wade has spurred new and innovative means of abortion access in Illinois, as well as other states with strong reproductive rights protections across the country.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois last month announced that it began offering abortion pills by mail to state residents who qualify, in some cases eliminating the need to ever leave home to terminate a pregnancy. The agency said the relatively new method of accessing a medication abortion will break down “unnecessary barriers to health care.”
Patients from other states can use this service as well, but they must travel to Illinois for a telehealth or in-person visit and then pick up the medication at an Illinois clinic, according to the Planned Parenthood affiliate.
New abortion clinics also recently opened near state boundary lines, in anticipation of the end of Roe v. Wade. Planned Parenthood opened a clinic opened in Waukegan near Wisconsin in 2020 and a clinic in Flossmoor near the Indiana border in 2018. Another clinic opened near the Missouri border in Fairview Heights in 2019, part of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri.
In January, two southern Illinois abortion providers established the Regional Logistics Center, a designated spot where traveling patients can get help booking lodging, finding transportation, accessing child care and get assistance funding the procedure through a variety of existing abortion funds.
The center is located inside the clinic in Fairview Heights and jointly operated by the Planned Parenthood affiliate and Hope Clinic in Granite City, another abortion provider just over the Missouri border.
“Today is the worst-case scenario for the 1.3 million people of reproductive age who live in the state of Missouri, where abortion is now banned,” said Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, during a news conference Friday.
Missouri had only one operating abortion clinic — a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis — before the Supreme Court ruling, and also had a number of restrictions in effect, including a mandatory waiting period before the procedure.
Rodríguez said shortly after the decision came down, the agency notified the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services “that we are ceasing abortion services in the state of Missouri.”
“In Illinois, now more than ever, we are preparing for an impending surge of patients that we know is likely to come,” she said. “Patients will now be forced to flee their home states for essential, fundamental care.”
Dr. Erin King, executive director of Hope Clinic, said the abortion provider is committed to ensuring “that people from communities across the South and Midwest can still access the safe, quality health care they need and deserve.”
“We are heartbroken by today’s disastrous Supreme Court decision stripping away the basic right to abortion care in this country,” she said in a written statement. “Today’s decision has been preceded by years of extremist attacks on our fundamental human rights. The ruling will immediately affect every person in this country, but will disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous and people of color and other historically marginalized communities.”
