An unprecedented number of women are flocking to Illinois for abortions since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Six months after the end of Roe, Illinois abortion providers treat a ‘historic high’ number of out-of-state patients https://t.co/u2IDZ3HCO2
— Chicago Breaking News (@ChicagoBreaking) December 27, 2022
In 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the Reproductive Health Act, which established terminating a pregnancy as a “fundamental right” for women in Illinois.
The bill states that it is the “fundamental right” of a woman to have an abortion and that a “fertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have independent rights.”
Pritzker boasted that the new law made Illinois the most progressive in the nation for women seeking abortions.
Eric Scheidler, executive director of the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League, told the Chicago Tribune that the new abortion laws had made “Illinois the abortion capital of the U.S.” and that abortion providers and the government of Illinois were “working to draw women here from across the region for abortions.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPI) says that nearly a third of its patients are from out of state as opposed to 6% before the Roe v. Wade ruling. PPI has 17 locations in Illinois.
Roe v. Wade was a landmark legal decision issued on January 22, 1973, where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas statute banning abortion. The decision effectively legalized abortion across the United States.
The National Right to Life Center estimates that by the end of 2021, 63.5 million abortions had been performed in the United States since Roe v. Wade. Nearly 40% of women who seek abortions are African American.
On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, abortion has either been banned or restricted in these 17 states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Other states considering post-Roe abortion legislation are Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Montana, South Carolina and Nebraska.
Abortion bans are currently blocked in Arizona, Indiana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming.
There are currently at least 16 states that have codified abortion as a “right.”
