* WCBU…

Officials say an overnight fire at the Peoria Planned Parenthood clinic was intentionally set.

Peoria Fire Department battalion chief Jeff Hascall said firefighters responded to a call at 2709 N. Knoxville Ave. just after 11:30 p.m. They found fire and smoke showing from one of the front windows. Planned Parenthood of Illinois president and CEO Jennifer Welch said a fire accelerant was thrown through the window.

The fire was brought under control by 12:15 a.m. Nobody was in the building at the time. One firefighter was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

The fire was deemed to be an arson. Damage, estimated at $150,000, to the building are “significant,” said Welch.

“Thankfully, no patients or team members were present or harmed. Senseless acts of vandalism have been on the rise across the country and Illinois has become a target as extreme and divisive rhetoric increases,” Welch said in a statement.

Abortion procedures are not performed at the Peoria Planned Parenthood clinic, though abortion pills effective through the 11th week of pregnancy are available. The clinic offers services, including birth control, sexually-transmitted infection testing and treatment, and hormone replacement therapy for trans patients.

Welch said Planned Parenthood will work with authorities to prosecute those responsible “to the fullest extent of the law.” No arrests have been made.

* Meanwhile, here’s ABC Chicago…

Eight of the nine candidates vying for Chicago’s mayor took to the stage Saturday for a two-hour Women’s Mayoral Forum at the Chicago Temple. […]

“Do you remember how you felt when you heard about that draft decision? It was like a punch in the gut,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said while calling out Paul Vallas on the issue of abortion rights. “All of us were up in arms. All of us took to social media. All of us were doing everything that we could, except for Paul Vallas, who has been silent on us for seven months until today at this forum.” […]

“Lori likes to reinvent new facts to suit her narrative. That dog doesn’t hunt in this game,” Vallas, who is the former CPS CEO, responded. “As mayor, I pledge to work tirelessly to ensure that Chicago is a reproductive safe haven.”

“Shame on you, Paul, for not talking about women’s rights until today,” Lightfoot added.

* PBS…

Anti-abortion activists’ greatest ambition is to shape public opinion on abortion regardless of whether the procedure is legal, several of them said in conversations with the PBS NewsHour. The same advocates are also concerned about people who face unexpected pregnancies, and said that they want to expand social safety nets to help parents and infants — though much of their vision of the safety net is centered around Christian religious community.

“Quite frankly, this is all kind of new and there’s so much up in the air,” said Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, of her organization’s plans. “It’s kind of like throwing darts at that board to see where it’s going to land. We’re certainly going to try to direct it, but there are just a lot of unknown possibilities out there yet.”

“Nothing begets success like success,” said Shawn Carney, co-founder, CEO and president of 40 Days for Life, an anti-abortion activist group that twice a year organizes simultaneous prayer campaigns outside of abortion facilities for 40 days.

“People who were hesitant to do 40 Days for Life said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do it now. We’re winning.’”

* The Daily Beast…

Leading up to the fall of Roe v. Wade last summer, activists and Republican politicians fought to restrict and ban abortion via medication, which has become the most popular and increasingly accessible way to terminate a first-trimester pregnancy in America. And the Food and Drug Administration’s recent rule change allowing retail pharmacies to provide the abortion drug mifepristone directly to patients has only heightened abortion opponents’ urgency to disrupt access to these pills. National anti-abortion groups have already announced upcoming protests at CVS and Walgreens, which have agreed to obtain certification to dispense the drug. […]

The text of one email [Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition] sent to the anti-abortion listserv, which he shared with The Daily Beast, outlined a specific strategy to win a boycott campaign. “Focus in on JUST ONE national chain. Pick the one that is in the weakest financial position.” Mahoney wrote. “Focus on the chain that has the most locations in the pro-life leaning states. Direct action and peaceful protests and local pharmacies. In other words, treat each pharmacy like an abortion clinic.”

For now, Stanton Public Policy Center has tabled its wild goose chase—finding Danco’s HQ—to focus on disrupting access to medication abortion. The group has planned a demonstration at a CVS in Northwest Washington, D.C. next Wednesday afternoon. Different groups have announced protests at various CVS and Walgreens locations all over the country on Feb. 4 and at Walgreens’ headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois, on Valentine’s Day.

* Jessica Valenti…

Idaho’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s abortion ban—but they also offered some ‘clarifications’ on law that aren’t likely to do anything other than further confusion and suffering. For example, Idaho’s ban requires that doctors who legally terminate pregnancies (in the limited exceptions that the state allows to do so) in a way that “provide[s] the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive.” Like, what?

The court writes that doctors performing abortions “must remove that unborn child in a manner that provides the best opportunity for survival (e.g., vaginal delivery or cesarean delivery)” as opposed to a procedure like a D&C—even if the doctor understands that the fetus will not be viable—unless doing so would pose a “greater risk of the death of the pregnant woman.”

The ruling is here.

* More…

* WSIL | Gun legislation, abortion among topics at Tuesday’s town hall in Marion: State Reps. David Friees (R-Red Bud), Dave Severin (R-Benton), Paul Jacobs (R-Pomona) and Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) and Sens. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) and Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) are expected to attend. Severin wants to make clear that the town hall is not a gun rally and that organizers planned the event weeks before the gun legislation came to a vote.

* Bloomberg Law | State Abortion Rulings Post-Dobbs Begin Defining Scope of Rights: State top courts have begun weighing in on whether their laws provide greater protection for abortion rights than the federal constitution, with mixed results. A majority of South Carolina’s Supreme Court justices recently held that the state constitution’s guarantee against unreasonable invasions of privacy extends to abortion. But the Idaho Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion, holding that there’s no fundamental right to abortion in the state constitution.

* NWI | Indiana Supreme Court weighs constitutionality of near-total abortion ban Thursday: At issue is whether the near-total abortion ban enacted in August by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb infringes on liberties guaranteed by the Indiana Constitution. The 60-minute hearing before the five Republican-appointed justices is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Region time.

* Youth Today | For foster youth, new restrictions make abortion access even more difficult: As a growing number of states ban or further limit abortion in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, women in many places face increasing barriers to seeking abortion. But for teenagers and young people in foster care or those who have recently aged out, the new restrictions are making abortion access, already a challenge, even more difficult. Foster youth are more likely to become pregnant than their peers and less likely to have financial resources and a family support system. An American Academy of Pediatrics study found that half of children born to teens in foster care ended up in child protective services custody by their second birthday.