Illinois Becomes an Abortion Sanctuary as More Women Travel There to Kill Their Babies

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Feb 28, 2018   |   4:19PM   |   Springfied, IL

More women are traveling across Illinois state borders to abort their unborn babies, according to new data from the state Department of Public Health.

In the past few years, abortion activists pushed to make Illinois one of the most pro-abortion states in the U.S. In 2017, they passed radical pro-abortion legislation, allowing taxpayer funding of abortions in Illinois and establishing the Land of Lincoln as a “safe haven” for women seeking abortions.

The new data from 2016 does not show the impact of the law, but it could be linked to lobbying efforts and publicity leading up to the legislation.

My Stateline reports more than 4,500 women came to Illinois from other states to have their unborn babies aborted in 2016. The number increased by about 1,300 from 2015, according to the Illinois DPH.

The increase is significant because abortions decreased overall in the same period, dropping from about 39,800 in 2015 to 38,400 in 2016, according to the data.

Emily Troscinski, executive director of Illinois Right to Life, said she was sad to learn that so many women are coming to Illinois for abortions.

“Illinois has become a dumping ground for other states with our flimsy abortion laws and politicians’ flippant attitude toward providing women with resources on all their options,” she said.

The AP reports both pro-life and pro-abortion activists pointed to neighboring states that have more protective abortion laws in place as a reason for the increase.

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Here’s more from the report:

Illinois has been expanding abortion access, but many neighboring states, including Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana and Kentucky, have passed restrictions.

“Illinois is surrounded by states with restrictive barriers that make it very difficult for patients to get the [abortion] care they need,” said Planned Parenthood of Illinois spokeswoman Julie Lynn.

Troscinski said she is concerned that Illinois will see abortion numbers increase again once the new pro-abortion law takes effect.

“For or against abortion, purposefully increasing the number of abortions and forcing those who oppose abortion to pay for the increase is appalling,” she said.

Planned Parenthood also secretly opened a large new abortion facility south of Chicago last month, likely to cash in on the new forced taxpayer funding for abortion law. Illinois has 16 other Planned Parenthood facilities across the state, and four more are scheduled to open in the next five years, according to the Prairie State Wire.