(TCPR) As thousands of life-advocates gathered at the Illinois State Capitol on March 25, in Springfield, members of the legislature were there to welcome them. Representative Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) and former State Representative Jeanne Ives were among those who spoke passionately to the burgeoning crowd at the Illinois Pro-Life March, criticizing Illinois’ extreme abortion policies and the governor’s disconnect with reason.
Ives, encouraging the crowd, pointed out that, “To be actively pro-life in Illinois is more significant than in our neighboring states, because.” She criticized Illinois’ incentives designed to draw abortionists into the state and the expanding mandates forcing taxpayers to fund abortion.
Ives shared her own journey of carrying a baby full-term, knowing that her child had a condition that would not allow him to survive after birth. She understands all too keenly the struggles some mothers face, yet firmly declared, “Not even immense suffering gives a person the right to kill another person.”
IL March for Life 2025 (Photo: TC Public Relations)
Neimerg denounced Pritzker for removing parental notification of abortion and called for common sense, saying, “We need a new governor. We need to restore parental notification. We need to return to reasonable in the state of Illinois.”
As Neimerg spoke, a small crowd of hecklers used an amplifier to chant, “We won’t go back.” The large assembly broke out in laughter when the state representative paused and responded to the interrupters, “Well, could you go back a couple of blocks?”
After the lawmakers slammed Pritzker’s policies, the crowd heard from an obstetrician gynecologist hospitalist, a university biologist, a Roman Catholic bishop, and an ordained Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod district president, a pregnancy help counselor, and a pro-life student. Each took the stage to defend the sanctity of human life and decried proposed Illinois anti-life legislation.
Dr. Matthew Eppinette is the Executive Director of Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity at Trinity International University. He spoke about IVF, or invitro fertilization, which is being hotly debated across the country. He shared how 93 percent of embryos created through IVF are never used, partially due to Preimplantation Genetic Testing, which “weeds out” embryos via graded evaluation, and is even used for baby sex selection at 75 percent of IVF clinics.
As initiatives to legalize physician-assisted suicide are being proposed in both the house and senate, Eppinette addressed the warped ethics involved. He suggested that the cost of enabling a physician to provide a vulnerable person with the means to end his or her life might be better spent in providing comfort and care. Eppinette told the attendees, “We Illinoisans can do better.”
With every pregnant patient she sees, Dr. Christina Francis explained, “I have two patients – mother and baby.” Francis, CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, related the horrific story of a woman whose botched surgical abortion left her with a perforated uterus and baby body parts in her abdomen. The victim’s lawsuit against Keith Reisinger-Kindle of Equity Clinic in Champaign, Illinois, was filed the previous week, on March 21, 2025.
AAPLOG’s Dr. Christina Francis (Photo: TC Public Relations)
Francis also addressed the problems with abortion pill drugs, their wide distribution, and lack of medical oversight. She pointed out that a widespread problem with abortion, either surgical or via abortion drugs, is a lack of informed consent. Francis explained that informed consent is required from a patient before any procedure or drug regimen, yet no information is given to women who are issued the abortion pills and hardly any discussion of risks is provided prior to a surgical abortion.
At We Care Pregnancy Clinic in DeKalb, Illinois, “Support goes beyond words,” declared Executive Director Erin Andrews. “It’s found in what we do. We take time to listen, to meet each client where they are – without judgement. We provide education, options and a steady presence, walking them through challenging times and into a future full of possibility. We remind them that, ‘You matter, and you are not alone.’”
“There are human beings in this state – in this country – who are not given the same rights as me and you,” began Mike Sander, a senior at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a Student Leader with weDignify. He put a personal perspective on the alarming number of preborn babies aborted in Illinois. He cited a 2023 figure of 72,000 abortions in the state – more than the enrollment at the Urbana-Champaign campus, which is almost 60,000. Sander observed that it would be like all the students at Illinois’s biggest university just vanished.
Rev. Thomas Paprocki, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, and Rev. Michael Mohr, President of the Central Illinois District of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, prayed for hearts to be changed and commended the ecumenical spirit within the pro-life community.
Illinois Right to Life President Mary Kate Zander, who served as the event’s emcee, led a motivating cheer before sending participants off to march around the state capitol and visit the legislative offices to lobby legislators.
Editor’s Note: This press release was originally emailed by TC Public Relations.
