* Rebecca Anzel…
An abortion clinic in northern Indiana should be allowed to open, Illinois’ top lawyer argued in a court filing, because women crossing state lines to seek access to such care “can strain the health care systems in neighboring states.”
Attorney General Kwame Raoul is the main author of a document submitted with 14 other states on behalf of Whole Woman’s Health Alliance. The organization sued Indiana officials in federal court after a license application to open a facility in South Bend, Indiana, offering medication-induced abortions was denied in part because the alliance did not include information about its affiliates in other states. […]
The attorney general added facilities might face increased “levels of demand that they cannot satisfy” if women seek abortion procedures in neighboring states like Illinois. […]
Raoul added Illinois residents attend institutions of higher education in the northern Indiana area, and “although these students may have temporarily left … to pursue their education,” Illinois and the other states that signed on to the court filing “retain an interest in ensuring that they are spared the ‘stress, anxiety, shame, and financial hardship’ associated with not having access to constitutionally protected medical care.”
The full brief is here.
* Raoul press release…
Raoul and the coalition point out that states have a strong interest in ensuring that abortion care, like all health care services, is provided safely. States’ interest in public health is best served when their licensing and regulatory processes are applied to protect the health and safety of patients, rather than to deny women access to safe abortion services. In the brief, Raoul and the attorneys general argue that preventing a clinic from operating in an underserved area may cause women to seek abortions from wholly unregulated sources or to undergo more risky procedures because they are forced to delay seeking care.
Furthermore, Raoul argues, when a state enforces its licensing regulations in a manner that deprives an underserved population of access to abortion care, it increases the public health risk for pregnant women. Currently, there are six abortion clinics in the state of Indiana, and half are located in Indianapolis. According to WWHA, because women in South Bend and the surrounding community do not have access to an abortion clinic, they are forced to travel significant distances to receive safe abortion care in their home state or in a neighboring state.
Raoul and the coalition also point out that when women are forced to travel to other states to access care due to their home state’s unlawful conduct, it may strain health care systems in those neighboring states. Evidence shows that women from Indiana regularly travel to Chicago to obtain abortions. In short, Raoul argues, the repercussions of Indiana’s actions are not limited to Indiana or the women who live there.
* Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society…
Illinois is an aberration in the Midwest. Not content with setting itself up to be America’s ‘abortion destination,’ its attorney general has now led a group of east and west coast states in attacking our neighbors in Indiana for their attempt to safeguard their women and children.
The community of South Bend has the right to ensure that all businesses operate in a safe manner. Illinois and the coalition it has pulled together are interfering in Indiana’s attempts to regulate a segment of the medical industry that has been notoriously lax in oversight. This affront is akin to a group of health inspectors from around the country trying to block Chicago from closing a restaurant for code violations.
If Kwame Raoul and his cohorts have a real interest in protecting the health and safety of the residents of Indiana, as they argue, they might do better to stay in their own lane and set a good example by cleaning up their own states and focusing on true life-affirming health care.
*** UPDATE *** Ameri Klafeta, Director of the Women and Reproductive Rights Project, ACLU of Illinois …
The argument by professional anti-abortion forces ignores the reality that two federal courts – at the trial and appellate level – already agreed with the state attorneys general that Indiana was doing little more than creating hurdles to safe reproductive health care. Rather than recognize the weakness of their argument, these forces attack attorneys general from across the country (and particularly from Illinois) who seek to ensure access to health care for all persons – in every state. Cruelly denying this care in support of an ideological agenda does not advance care for residents in any state.
- Morningstar - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:03 am:
Is it not the height of hypocrisy for the Thomas More Society to preach about setting a good example?
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:13 am:
===attacking our neighbors in Indiana for their attempt to safeguard their women and children.===
If by safeguarding women and children you mean ending our constitutional right to privacy, then yeah, “safeguarding.”
- Yiddishcowboy - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:16 am:
Mr. Breen, you talk about staying in one’s lane. Here’s an idea: you and TMS stay in your own lane and out of the lane of women who wish to make their own informed decisions re healthcare as it relates to their bodies.
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:24 am:
Thank you AG Raoul.
- Steve - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:25 am:
If Raoul has standing in court on this one, he could go after Indiana for almost anything they did . Amazing.
- leonard - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:30 am:
amalia you said it I am a man but firmly believe that a woman has the right over her own body
- PJ - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:41 am:
==If Raoul has standing in court on this one, he could go after Indiana for almost anything they did==
The State of Illinois is not the plaintiff. Takes two seconds to read before commenting.
- All In - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:46 am:
Not sure how the AG in IL would possibly have standing in this matter. If so, race for the return volley from Indiana AG that the lack of gun dealers in Chicago is burdensome for Indiana dealers overwhelmed with business.
This could be the first time in US history that a public official is shilling for a business to open in another State to take business away from his own. We truly do live in unique times. . . . .
- Annonin' - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:51 am:
There is something about Breen’s approach to the world that makes one want to puke
- SpfdNewb - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:52 am:
Just an Amici Currie briefing that Illinois, among other states, has filed on the behalf of the plaintiffs. Nothing outrageous or out of the ordinary about this.
- bhartbanjo - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 11:56 am:
Bravo @ducky
If I had a womb, I certainly would not allow Thomas More inside it.
- Cleric dcn - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 12:19 pm:
The great myth that somehow abortion is healthcare. Most regular physicians see the fallacy in that but that is not pointed out.
- Jocko - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 12:29 pm:
==The great myth that somehow abortion is healthcare.==
I guess you’ve never heard of an ectopic pregnancy, impending miscarriage, or a woman contracting cancer while pregnant.
- Amalia - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 12:41 pm:
Thank you Leonard. I believe in agency for men and women. reproductive choices are a large determinate for women’s agency.
- Cleric - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 12:58 pm:
@jocko yes ectopic pregnancy is healthcare not abortion. Pregnancy cannot go on much different situation that has not abortion as such.
- Jibba - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 1:14 pm:
==Most regular physicians===
Speak for yourself, as they say here. And anything that risks the mental or physical health of the woman would qualify as health care even in your limited use of the phrase, as Jocko pointed out one example. Others don’t see the contradiction, FYI.
- JIbba - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 1:16 pm:
NB, more than one example given by Jocko.
- Nick Name - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 2:10 pm:
===Illinois is an aberration in the Midwest.===
You’re welcome.
- Froganon - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 2:29 pm:
Access to birth control/family planning services,breast cancer screening, STD diagnois/treatment and pre-natal/post-natal care are all vital health care services provided by these clinics. Breen and his church utterly fail to persuade us so they hijack the legal system and howl with frustration when the voters force them back into their lane.
- Skirmisher - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 2:58 pm:
The laws of Indiana are not the concern of Mr. Raoul. The people of the sovereign state of Indiana have every right to govern themselves as the please, thank you.
- Chris - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 3:08 pm:
SNL skit idea: Illinois politicians going to neighboring states to lecture them on how to properly govern.
- Nonbeliever - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 3:14 pm:
Personally I am a strong supporter of abortion rights. My wife a little less so.
However, Raoul is overstepping and needs to keep his nose out of Indiana. Same goes for other states as well
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 3:19 pm:
I shouldn’t have to wait for help with my issues with my reproductive organs because Indiana hates women.
Thank you for your service Mr Raoul.
- JB13 - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 4:35 pm:
– it may strain health care systems in those neighboring states –
Now, why would an Illinois *state* official care about whether an Illinois abortion clinic makes more money from underprivileged Indiana women coming to Chicago to get abortions? Wouldn’t that just be classified as “tourism,” a net benefit to Illinois’ economy?
Unless, you know, Illinois taxpayers are being made to pay for Indiana women’s abortions. But that wouldn’t be happening. Would it?
- DarkDante - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 4:57 pm:
==Unless, you know, Illinois taxpayers are being made to pay for Indiana women’s abortions. But that wouldn’t be happening. Would it?==
Not really, no.
- SaulGoodman - Monday, Aug 26, 19 @ 6:57 pm:
It’s amazing how many people here don’t understand the concept of an amicus brief.
- Arock - Tuesday, Aug 27, 19 @ 9:03 am:
“I guess you’ve never heard of an ectopic pregnancy, impending miscarriage, or a woman contracting cancer while pregnant.” - and the majority of abortions are not for any medical reasons so no it is not healthcare in the majority of cases. It is the ending of an innocent human life. We can do better for women than to say they must end a life to be successful.
- Da Big Bad Wolf - Tuesday, Aug 27, 19 @ 4:11 pm:
Lol Saul Goodman, I was thinking the exact same thing.