Chicago scores high rank for protecting abortion rights, national analysis finds

Chicago ranked highly for the city’s reproductive rights in a new national analysis of abortion and contraceptive access.

The National Institute for Reproductive Health analyzed the “reproductive freedom” of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., and Chicago and New York ranked the highest.

The institute’s scoring system, called the Local Reproductive Freedom Index, used a variety of metrics to determine a city’s score: Protecting abortion access, funding reproductive health care, supporting young people and families, building healthy communities, and proclaiming local values.

“While Chicago has long been a regional access point for abortion care, today, people from across the country are traveling to Chicago on a daily basis to access the abortion care they want, need and deserve,” Alicia Hurtado, the movement building director for the Chicago Abortion Fund, said in a statement.

The data for the analysis was collected from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2022, which included the time immediately before and after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion in June 2022.

Chicago and Illinois have long been considered a regional access point for abortion care, but providers started to see even more patients coming to the area after Roe v. Wade was overturned. In response, the state created a hotline to help patients schedule reproductive services at hospitals across the state.

Chicago ranked highly for providing local protections for abortion clinics and providers, funding for reproductive care — including abortion, STI testing and contraception — and promoting positive public awareness campaigns on sexual and reproductive health.

“Chicago has been on the forefront of implementing protective ordinances for individuals seeking abortion care and reproductive healthcare, and is also one of just 16 cities in the nation thus far to invest in local abortion funds,” the Chicago Abortion Fund said in a statement.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the Chicago Abortion Fund has helped more than 5,000 people, according to the organization.

Last fall, Gov. J.B. Pritzker created Think Big America, a tax-exempt issue advocacy nonprofit organization aimed at protecting and expanding abortion rights in other states.