Illinois is becoming the abortion destination of the Midwest as state lawmakers pass increasingly radical pro-abortion laws.
State abortion facilities are reporting huge increases in abortion patients and announcing plans to expand so that they can kill even more unborn babies, according to local news reports.
While neighboring states are working to protect unborn babies and mothers from abortions, Illinois has been moving in the opposite direction. In June, Democrat Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law allowing abortions for any reason up to birth and forcing every state insurance plan to cover them.
Ignoring massive protests from their constituents, Illinois lawmakers quickly rammed through the radical pro-abortion law over a holiday weekend. The law erases criminal penalties for performing abortions and allows non-doctors to do them. It also repeals the state partial-birth abortion ban, abortion clinic regulations and conscience protections for medical workers.
Now, the state legislature is considering a bill that would allow young teens to get secret abortions without a parent’s knowledge or consent.
Capitalizing on such leniency, the abortion industry plans to expand throughout the state. News Channel 20 reports Planned Parenthood runs 17 facilities in Illinois; and next year, all of them will begin providing abortions.
Daisy Guerrero, manager of the Springfield Planned Parenthood, claimed Illinois is becoming a “safe haven” for abortions – though there is nothing safe about an abortion. It kills an unborn baby and may damage the mother physically and/or psychologically. Women also should be concerned about traveling to Illinois for abortions because lawmakers eliminated basic health and safety regulations for abortion clinics under the new law in June.
Guerrero said the Springfield office see about 50 abortion patients a day, compared to about 30 a day several years ago.
“We want women to have safe, legal abortions. We want them to receive the healthcare that they need and they deserve,” she said. “There’s going to be a lot of traveling from other states to Illinois, again, because we are the safe haven and we are going to be seeing anyone and everyone, no matter what.”
In October, the billion-dollar abortion chain opened a huge new abortion facility in Illinois, near the border of Missouri. The new Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood aborts unborn babies for any reason up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, which is past the point of viability. Premature babies now are surviving at 22 and 23 weeks.
Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion facility in Granite City, aborts unborn babies for any reason up to viability, too.
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Executive Direct Erin King told Channel 20 that they have seen a lot more women come from different states for abortions in the past two years.
“Our patient volume in the last two years has just exploded,” King said. “It’s been changing so quickly, given the restrictions of the states around us that we’ve seen almost a 50-percent increase in patients.”
King and Planned Parenthood spokespeople said they have seen women from as far as New York and California come to their facilities for abortions.
It is curious, however, that women supposedly needed to travel from those states to Illinois for abortions, because New York and California have similarly extreme pro-abortion laws. They also have the highest number of abortion businesses of all states, higher than Illinois.
Meanwhile, Illinois pro-life advocates continue to work hard to provide mothers with information and support to help them choose life for their unborn babies.
Springfield Right to Life President Tim Moore said they emphasize supporting the whole family.
“We are concerned about the mom, the dad, the baby and we think there should be more emphasis on the continuum of care surrounding the family than trying to offer a solution that is killing the child,” Moore told the local news.
Illinois Right to Life also began a huge new education effort in the fall to encourage more people to become involved in protecting the right to life in their state.
