Last week’s Supreme Court decision to strike down a Texas abortion law reverberated across the nation as a major victory for pro-choice activists. In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the court declared unconstitutional a Texas law that would have required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, and abortion clinics to meet the safety standards of outpatient surgical centers. A majority of justices found in their ruling that neither of those requirements actually protect women’s health.
More than 300 Wisconsinites came to Illinois for abortions in 2012, back when its hospital-admitting privileges law was still on the books. In late 2015, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law, and the Supreme Court’s June ruling rejected a bid by Wisconsin to revive that restriction.
Micah Clark, director of the pro-life American Family Association of Indiana, is fearful that Whole Woman’s Health will “embolden abortion activists to strike down many of the pro-life laws Indiana has passed in recent years.” He says pro-life leaders in Indiana is currently “on the defense,” and unsure of their next move.
Whether or not abortion laws change in neighboring states, and whether women still head to Illinois to obtain abortions, Planned Parenthood Illinois’s interim CEO Linda Diamond Shapiro stresses that its doors are always open. The group has been expanding since the passage of the Affordable Care Act gave greater access to preventative care coverage, Shapiro says, and the group has ample resources to handle out-of-state abortion seekers.
