Illinois braces for out-of-state abortions to double or triple with Roe v. Wade overturned

© Provided by Business Insider Workers at a family planning clinic watch as thousands of abortion-rights demonstrators march past their clinic chanting support on their way downtown, on May 14, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images

• It’s unclear how well the state will be able to accommodate those new patients.

Illinois is bracing for waves of new people crossing its state lines seeking abortions. The state became an abortion oasis Friday morning, when the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections under its previous Roe v. Wade decision.

The states surrounding Illinois responded quickly. Missouri and Kentucky had “trigger laws” in place, which effectively banned abortions Friday. Indiana’s Republican governor and legislators prepared to implement new restrictions, possibly a ban, during an upcoming special session in July. In Wisconsin, an 1849 abortion ban kicked back in once the federal protection was revoked, and abortion clinics across the state canceled appointments, though state officials said they would not enforce the pre-Civil War law. Abortion is still legal in Iowa, but the governor said Friday that she would protect “every unborn Iowan,” and its legislature is majority Republican.

Illinois is effectively becoming an island of abortion access. It’s not just neighboring states. Nearly every state south of Illinois either has a trigger law or a plan to restrict abortions.

“We are expecting the influx to start almost immediately,” Brigid Leahy, head of public policy at Planned Parenthood Illinois, told Insider.

Planned Parenthood Illinois expects that the state overall will see an additional 20,000 to 30,000 patients crossing its border to receive abortions each year.

That’s double to triple the number of patients Illinois clinics currently absorb from other states. In 2020, Illinois clinics performed fewer than 10,000 out-of-state abortions, accounting for roughly one-fifth of all the state’s abortions, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“Thankfully, the work has been done here in Illinois to protect our rights. But our next step, now that we have our rights protected, is to look at how can we ensure access?” Leahy said.

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7 maps and charts that show what could happen if Roe v. Wade fell

The Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, according to a leaked draft opinion. The court gutting Roe would return control of abortion policy back to the states. These seven maps and charts show the state of abortion in the US and what could happen if Roe fell. See more stories on Insider’s business page.

The Supreme Court could be on the verge of striking down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established a right to abortion, upending decades of policy and fully returning the issue to the states.

In a draft Supreme Court opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito obtained and published by Politico, the court’s majority would uphold a 15-week abortion ban passed in Mississippi and overturn both Roe and a subsequent decision affirming it, Casey v. Planned Parenthood.

The court’s watershed decision in Roe, and subsequent rulings upholding it, have granted the right to first-trimester abortion for Americans since 1973 — but the reality of that right varies dramatically from state to state.

Since Roe became the law of the land, individual state legislatures have enacted dozens of restrictions and regulations to make it as difficult as possible for patients to actually access abortion, in addition to outright bans that violate the constitution.

From strict regulations on clinics and bans on abortion after a certain number of weeks, to requiring patients to receive counseling and undergo waiting periods, these laws have tested the limits of Roe.

In 2021, Texas became the first state to successfully enact a “heartbeat” bill that effectively bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, before many patients know they’re pregnant. The law’s unusual design outsources the enforcement of the ban to private citizens, enabling them to sue abortion providers and those who “aid and abet” in abortion procedures and receive up to $10,000 in damages.

These seven charts and maps illustrate what abortion access in America actually looks like today, and what could happen if Roe fell.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Here’s how the phases of pregnancy and fetal development line up with abortion bans. The Second Trimester starts at week 14.

Before Texas’ successful six-week abortion ban, states made many attempts to restrict patients from getting abortions after a certain number of weeks — oftentimes before a woman even knows she’s pregnant.

In 2019, the Governors of Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Missouri signed bills to either severely restrict abortion with so-called “heartbeat bills” or, in Alabama’s case, ban the procedure altogether.

Other states have tried to ban dilation & evacuation (D&E), the method commonly used to perform abortions after 14 weeks.

The surgical procedure is usually used in late-term miscarriages and abortions to remove the fetal tissue as safely as possible, and accounts for less than 0.5% of all abortions.

Prohibiting D&E abortions is effectively a ban on all second-trimester abortions, landing such prohibitions in murky legal territory.

Patients face major obstacles to abortion and scheduling may get worse

© Matt Marton/AP Photo Abortion-rights demonstrators march through the loop during a rally, on May 14, 2022, in Chicago, Illinois. Matt Marton/AP Photo

Anticipating Roe v. Wade being overturned, Planned Parenthood Illinois opened new clinics near the borders of Indiana and Wisconsin in recent years. It now offers abortion pills by mail to Illinois residents. It’s considering adding more providers to its pool, even bringing in doctors whose states no longer allow them to perform abortions.

“To a certain extent there’s no perfect way to plan, I’ll be honest,” Leahy said, adding, “It’s really hard to know exactly how many people will be coming and exactly where they’ll come.”

People seeking out-of-state abortions don’t always go to the closest place. When Texas banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, in September 2021, many Texans traveled to Chicago for abortions, instead of nearby Oklahoma. Sometimes it was easier and faster to get flights to and from Chicago. Sometimes clinics in Oklahoma were completely booked, Leahy said.

Now, with no federal abortion protections and people flocking to a smaller number of clinics, “there may be an impact on how long it’s going to take for you to get an appointment,” she said. Appointments may fill up across any state that still performs abortions, including Illinois.

Leahy fears that many people in other states will be unable to find timely appointments, meaning they’ll have to travel thousands of miles to get an abortion.

“They have to find a place with an opening and then they have to figure out their own lives, right? You’ve got to figure out when you can be at work, who can take care of your kids. Is that flight booked? Do I have to rent a car?” she said.

Planned Parenthood says it needs more staff members and money to accommodate all the patients who can make the journey. On Friday, the organization called on Illinois state government to commit funding to help abortion providers absorb the new patients.

“We are in a new frontier on this. We are going to be learning as we’re going,” Leahy said.

Do you work at an abortion clinic in Illinois? We want to hear from you. Email Morgan McFall-Johnsen at mmcfalljohnsen@insider.com or text her securely on Signal at 646-768-4730.

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