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Pritzker wants Illinois to continue providing care for abortion ‘refugees’ post-Dobbs

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* Governor Pritzker during a Q&A following a Roe v. Wade anniversary roundtable…

Number one, we want to make sure that we are securing women’s rights for as long and as broadly as we can.

Second, we know that women are seeking those rights coming across the border from places like Missouri and Wisconsin and Indiana. We want to provide the services to them as well, if they should need it. The providers that were here today, many of them are seeing many more patients as a result of that. Again, these are refugees from other states. This is a vitally important fundamental reason that many of us are engaged in the fight for freedom.

I will say that, personally, I believe that we need to continue this battle to figure out how we can do a better job of providing the right kinds of services. It isn’t just a question of the old thinking that it was a single mom who got pregnant, a single woman who got pregnant and is seeking an abortion and has never had a child before. We’re talking about families now. Women who are in Missouri or in Indiana, who have an ectopic pregnancy or have some other challenge with their health care related to reproductive health. And their lives are on the line. And we need to make sure that we are the ones here in Illinois that are helping to save their lives.

* Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, also spoke to reporters today…

At [the Chicago Abortion Fund] we’ve seen a 92 percent increase in support requests post-Dobbs. And that highlights Illinois, as the crucial search state that we are. Recent research released by the Guttmacher Institute and the Society of Family Planning shows that Illinois had the largest increase in abortions in the country post-Dobbs with Florida right behind.

We anticipate a ruling in Florida any day now that will immediately impact Illinois. As we know people are traveling throughout the southeast. They’re already coming to Illinois, and Florida is also sharing that burden and if we lose Florida, we will see an influx that affects our state immediately right away.

* Related…

* Tribune | Roe v. Wade anniversary: Two activist families fight contrasting abortion battles in Illinois, Indiana: Miller is a third-generation anti-abortion activist, the granddaughter of the late Joseph Scheidler, who founded the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League and was widely known across the country as the “godfather of pro-life activism.” The teen is now carrying on his legacy through her own work opposing abortion in Illinois, a longtime stronghold for reproductive rights in the Midwest. Just over the state line in northwest Indiana, another family is fighting a diametrically opposite battle to restore reproductive freedoms in a part of the country where they’ve recently been stripped.

* NYT | What to Know About the Federal Law at the Heart of the Latest Supreme Court Abortion Case: One of the newest battlefields in the abortion debate is a decades-old federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, known by doctors and health policymakers as EMTALA. The issue involves whether the law requires hospital emergency rooms to provide abortions in urgent circumstances, including when a woman’s health is threatened by continuing her pregnancy. But, as with many abortion-related arguments, this one could have broader implications. Some legal experts say it could potentially determine how restrictive state abortion laws are allowed to be and whether states can prevent emergency rooms from providing other types of medical care, such as gender-affirming treatments.

* AP | Missouri abortion-rights campaign backs proposal to enshrine access but allow late-term restrictions: Missourians for Constitutional Freedom said it is committing to a proposal, one of 11 versions, that would let lawmakers regulate or ban abortion after what’s called viability, with an exception for the protection of the life and physical and mental health of the woman.

* KSHB | Community weighs in on Missourians for Constitutional Freedom launching ballot initiative: “Most of these patients, if not all, would have their rights restored by a fetal viability standard, and this would put us on par in terms of language of laws with a state like Illinois,” said Dr. Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “And certainly no one thinks of Illinois as a restrictive abortion state.”

* KOMU | Missouri Democrats reveal abortion rights legislation: Abortion has been illegal in Missouri in nearly all circumstances including rape or incest, under a state law enacted in 2019 and signed into law in 2022. […] HB 2038 and 2040, both sponsored by state Rep. Emily Weber (D-Kansas City) would “protect the right to an abortion prior to the point of fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the mother.” It would also specify that an ectopic pregnancy should be considered a medical emergency, allowing an abortion to legally be performed.

* NPR | Why Vice President Harris is going to Wisconsin today to talk about abortion: In Wisconsin, Harris plans to lay blame for the restrictions with former President Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican presidential race. “The former president hand-picked three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe. He made a decision to take your freedoms,” Harris will say, according to excerpts released by the White House.

posted by Isabel Miller
Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 1:35 pm

Comments

The clinic that just opened doors in Carbondale is operating by a group that does not have any other Illinois based clinics or facilities. The rest of their medical practice is in Memphis, TN.

I think it is a great and responsible approach for physicians seeking to provide healthcare to patients outside of Illinois were able to develop a facility in Illinois that they will be able to refer their patients to in order to receive healthcare.

Comment by Candy Dogood Monday, Jan 22, 24 @ 11:59 pm