A pro-life Republican representative may challenge Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner after he angered voters this summer by signing a bill to force taxpayers to pay for abortions.
Illinois state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a pro-life Republican from Wheaton, said she is considering challenging the pro-abortion republican, according to the Sun Times.
Ives spoke out strongly against Rauner this year after he went back on his promise and signed a radical pro-abortion bill that forces taxpayers to pay for the abortion of unborn babies.
Ives said the new abortion law amounts to “an open-ended brand new entitlement program” for a “state that’s utterly bankrupt.” She made the comments during a interview Friday on WJPF radio.
According to the Tribune News Service, Rauner already has raised tens of millions of dollars for his re-election campaign, and no potential Republican challengers have come even close.
But Ives said she is “exploring” the possibility of challenging him. She is a West Point graduate and has five children.
“He’s got a really tough re-election bid coming up, and I don’t see him being elected in 2018,” Ives said. “I honestly think Rauner could spend his entire fortune and not redeem his reputation.”
Rauner angered all but the most radical pro-abortion activists earlier this year when he signed a law to force state taxpayers to fund abortions. He previously said he would veto the legislation because it was too radical, but he went back on his word.
The new law will keep abortion on demand up to birth legal and establish the Land of Lincoln as a “safe haven” for women seeking abortions. The new law also will force taxpayers in the already cash-strapped state to pay for abortions up to birth.
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Rauner made no secret of the fact that he supports abortion, but he had promised to stay away from the controversial issue when elected. The governor previously said he would veto the radical pro-abortion bill because taxpayer funding for abortion is too “divisive,” a fact backed up by polling.
Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortions, including those who identify as pro-choice. In October 2016, a Politico/Harvard University poll found that just 36 percent of likely voters supported taxpayer funding for abortions, while 58 percent opposed it. These findings are consistent with previous polls from various groups.
Emily Troscinski, executive director of Illinois Right To Life, said the state once funded unrestricted abortions through Medicaid in the late 1970s, and taxpayers paid about $1.8 million for about 12,738 unborn babies’ abortion deaths at the time.
She predicted that state taxpayers will be forced to pay for as many as 12,000 unborn babies’ abortion deaths annually because of the legislation.
According to the Pro-Life Action League, the law also will keep abortion legal in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned.
