* Tribune…

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Chicago fired off hundreds of letters Monday to Fortune 500 CEOs in states facing abortion bans, pitching the city as a more welcoming location for their businesses.

The letter, which was signed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other civic leaders, was mailed to about 300 CEOs in 25 states that are enacting trigger bans, restricting access and criminalizing abortion. It warns that employees in those states “may suffer” and see their lives upended as a result of the decision to end the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right.

“As you weigh the repercussions facing your employees, customers and vendors, we welcome the opportunity to highlight the ways in which Chicago remains a welcoming city for all,” the letter states.

* Newsmax…

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker wants to make the state “the abortion mecca of the nation,” GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey told Newsmax on Tuesday — Illinois’ primary election day.

“I’m just appalled, listening to the conversation about the abortion issues,” Bailey, a state senator, told Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “We’ve got a fight on our hands here.”

* Fox 32…

Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, who is pro-choice on abortion, noted that a majority of Illinois voters are too. He fears Bailey won’t be able to win over many of those voters in the general election.

“People can complain maybe they don’t like what some of us did back in the eighties and nineties. But we won, and we governed,” Edgar said “If the party continues its move to the right, we will be a permanent minority party in Illinois.”

* Center Square…

Women seeking abortions who live in state where the procedure is now banned may get help from an Illinois charity.

The Springfield-based group called Elevated Access is organizing free flights. The group recruits volunteer pilots to fly patients to medical procedures, including abortions. The charity flew its first abortion patient earlier this month from Oklahoma to Kansas.

* Wisconsin…

It had been barely 80 minutes since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday when physician Nisha Verma’s phone pinged with an urgent group message from another obstetrician-gynecologist that made her catch her breath.

There was a woman in Wisconsin carrying a fetus with anencephaly, a fatal birth defect in which parts of the brain and skull are missing. With abortion likely illegal in the state, the clinic had canceled her appointment for a termination later that day. But forcing her to continue the pregnancy was cruel and risked complications. What should I do? the doctor wrote.

As colleagues in other parts of the Midwest responded with leads for out-of-state clinics, Verma mentally added the case to her growing list of gray-area situations where the new abortion bans fail to capture the complexity of modern medicine and leave doctors in the lurch.

“There are so many unanswered questions,” said Verma, an OB/GYN in Atlanta, where a six-week abortion ban law that is on hold could be activated soon. “The decision is creating confusion and fear because we know what to do medically but we don’t know what we can do based on the law.”

* Ohio…

The parking lot of Dayton Women’s Med Center in Kettering was busier than usual Monday as patients inside tried to understand their options now that abortions are banned in Ohio after the detection of a fetal heartbeat — about six weeks into pregnancy.

“Patients are very upset, crying and desperate,” said a representative from Women’s Med, one of the few remaining abortion providers in Ohio. “There is a lot of confusion.”

“Today we saw a patient in Dayton who has cancer. Her doctors told her she would have to terminate before she received chemotherapy treatment. She will have to travel to Indiana. A mom brought her daughter in and doesn’t own a car. She will have to rent one to get her daughter to her appointment in Indianapolis later this week.”

* Missouri…

Just five weeks before the August primary vote when Schmitt will need to win over fervently anti-abortion Republican voters, the Missouri attorney general is now empowered to investigate potential violations of the ban.

“My Office has been fighting to uphold the sanctity of life since I became attorney general, culminating in today’s momentous court ruling and attorney general opinion,” Schmitt said in a statement on Friday. “I will continue the fight to protect all life, born and unborn.” Schmitt didn’t elaborate on what shape his continued fight would take.

* Indiana…

Indiana’s attorney general is asking federal judges to lift orders blocking several state anti-abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to end constitutional protection for abortion.

An appeal of one of those blocked Indiana laws aimed at prohibiting abortions based on gender, race or disability was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019. But that was before former President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett strengthened the court’s conservative majority.

Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita’s office asked in court filings Monday that federal judges lift injunctions against that law, along with others banning a common second-trimester abortion procedure that the legislation calls a “dismemberment abortion” and requiring parents be notified if a court allows a girl younger than 18 to get abortion without parental consent.

* Iowa…

Gov. Kim Reynolds is asking a court to reinstate Iowa’s “fetal heartbeat” law — which bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — in her first action to limit abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure.

Reynolds, a Republican and staunch abortion opponent, signed the so-called heartbeat law in 2018, but it never took effect and was ruled unconstitutional in 2019. At the time, it would have been the most restrictive abortion law in the country.

* Online…

Facebook and Instagram have begun promptly removing posts that offer abortion pills to women who may not be able to access them following a Supreme Court decision that stripped away constitutional protections for the procedure. […]

The Facebook account was immediately put on a “warning” status for the post, which Facebook said violated its standards on “guns, animals and other regulated goods.”

Yet, when the AP reporter made the same exact post but swapped out the words “abortion pills” for “a gun,” the post remained untouched. A post with the same exact offer to mail “weed” was also left up and not considered a violation.

* NPR…

Majorities of Americans say they disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, think it was politically motivated, are concerned the court will now reconsider rulings that protect other rights, and are more likely to vote for a candidate this fall who would restore the right to an abortion, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. […]

By a 56%-to-40% margin, respondents oppose the court’s decision, including 45% who strongly oppose it. […]

By a 57%-to-36% margin, respondents said the decision was mostly based on politics as opposed to the law. And by a 56%-to-41% margin are concerned that the overturning of Roe will be used by the Supreme Court to reconsider past rulings that protect contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage. […]

A bare majority of 51% say they would definitely vote for a candidate who would support a federal law to restore the right to an abortion, while 36% would definitely vote against such a candidate.