The state of Illinois announced last Monday its plans to direct approximately $23 million to support abortion as neighboring states enact pro-life restrictions — and the state’s Democratic governor shows off his pro-abortion bona fides after Dobbs.
According to NPR Illinois, $8 million will go to training “reproductive health care providers and a specialty consultation program for at-risk patients.” Another $10 million will go towards creating a hotline for helping people find abortions as the number of out-of-state seekers is expected to increase.
Another $5 million is intended to create the Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access (CARLA), which Gov. J.B. Pritzker said would alleviate the strain on independent clinics. It entails nurses scheduling appointments through hospital systems and providing funding through the Chicago Abortion Fund, which helped announce the program at a press conference by Pritzker on Monday.
In a press release, the governor’s office also described a new family planning program for Medicaid (emphasis added):
The program provides comprehensive coverage for family planning services for people otherwise not eligible for Medicaid based on income threshold. This plan raises the income eligibility above threshold for the regular Medicaid program and includes services such as an annual preventive exam, family planning counseling, all Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved methods of contraception, permanent methods of birth control (tubal ligation or vasectomy), and basic infertility counseling.
Additional examples of services include cervical cancer screening and treatment, screening mammograms, breast cancer gene (BRCA) genetic counseling and testing as applicable, vaccines that support reproductive health, abortion care, and transportation for family planning visits.
Other initiatives include reimbursements for state employees to access abortion if they live out of state. The state’s Reproductive Health Facilities Capital Grant Program also directs $5 million towards “reproductive health care providers in Illinois that are experiencing increased demand for their services. The capital grants fund improvements and repairs, new construction, security upgrades, and equipment to increase capacity and enhance safety, which includes the purchase of vehicles for mobile care units.”
The investments are just the latest in a series of actions Illinois has taken to protect abortion as other blue states have attempted to do after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
Live Action News recently reported on the legal battle Illinois is undergoing after it enacted what pregnancy centers have described as an unconstitutional law restricting their activities. As of Thursday night, a judge had issued an injunction temporarily blocking the law.
“In the land of Lincoln, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to maintain and expand reproductive health access for patients and protect providers,” Pritzker said Monday. He added:
As a reminder of what we’ve accomplished already, we’ve expanded the number of abortion providers and eliminated barriers to access for patients – allowing birth centers to provide all reproductive care and removing copays for birth control and for medication abortions.
We’ve instituted new protections from doctors for out-of-state subpoenas, creating another layer of safeguards for reproductive access in Illinois. We funded the creation of the reproductive health public navigation hotline – a centralized resource that patients will be able to call to find the services that meet their needs. We expanded Illinois’ family planning program.
Earlier this week, we made it illegal for so-called crisis pregnancy centers to use misinformation, deceptive practices, or misrepresentation to interfere with access to abortion services or emergency contraception.
Health Department Director Sameer Vohra also touted how the state had “grown the number of delegate agencies providing family planning services. These providers,” he said, “have increased dramatically with clients served being up nearly 35% and the number of unique visits up nearly 75%.”
Later in his press conference, Pritzker indicated more pro-abortion initiatives could be coming. “If I’m standing here again announcing more protections that we need to put in place, you won’t be surprised,” he said, while citing the prospect of “attorneys general looking to make a name for themselves” by pursuing doctors or patients in Illinois.
