If you haven’t seen them already, take a look at the latest numbers from Planned Parenthood of Illinois on abortions: Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, the organization’s clinics in Illinois have experienced a 47% increase in the number of patients seeking abortion care.
Nearly a quarter of patients traveled from 41 different states over the last two years, many from neighboring Wisconsin, which has banned abortions after 21 weeks and 6 days; and Indiana, where abortions are now completely banned. In the downstate Carbondale clinic, 90% of patients seeking abortions came from 16 states, many in the south, such as Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and elsewhere.
Other states where abortion remains legal are also now experiencing a huge influx of thousands of out-of-state patients, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which gathers abortion data. Nationwide, one in five patients seeking an abortion are forced to travel out-of-state.
The data is no surprise, and it’s “devastating” for women to be forced to travel for abortion care, as Planned Parenthood of Illinois President Jennifer Welch told Sun-Times reporter Kaitlin Washburn. It all reinforces this board’s strong view that lawmakers have no business interfering with health care decisions that belong solely between a patient and her doctor.
That’s not just our take; it’s the majority view in this country, since polls have repeatedly shown that most Americans believe abortion should remain legal in all or most cases.
We hope women, and other voters, remember that come November. Lingering anger over the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe two years ago this month, in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, has cemented abortion as a 2024 campaign issue, especially among suburban women in swing states, as a Wall Street Journal poll showed.
It ought to be clear by now that outlawing or severely restricting abortion doesn’t put a stop to it; it only makes it more onerous and expensive for women who need abortion care.
The court could take another big step backwards on reproductive rights in the coming weeks in a case challenging access to mifepristone, one of two drugs used in the most common regimen of medication abortion, which now make up 63% of all abortions in the U.S., up from about half before Roe was overturned.
The court’s decision, expected later this month, involves two cases that are related to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone in 2000. A ruling in favor of those challenging the FDA’s approval would, as the legal website scotusblog.com explains, severely limit access to abortion even in states where it remains legal otherwise.
Update: On Thursday, the court unanimously rejected the challenge to FDA’s approval of mifepristone, allowing the drug to remain accessible.
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