Why thousands go to Illinois for abortions
Many see state with laws that are less restrictive as ‘last resort’
CHICAGO — The young woman in a gray hoodie and backpack boarded a bus alone just after midnight, departing for an interstate trip to make the most pivotal choice of her 24 years.
Her family and most of her friends didn’t know the sweatshirt covered a 12-week pregnancy she was planning to terminate, the reason for her travels some 260 miles north from southwest Missouri to Illinois that winter weeknight.
“I’ve seen what unplanned pregnancies do to people,” said the woman, who requested anonymity to keep her recent abortion a secret from those closest to her. “I don’t want to be put through that. I don’t want to be forced into a marriage. I don’t want to raise a child alone.”
Illinois health data show that each year around 3,000 women come from out of state to have an abortion in Illinois, which has some of the least restrictive laws in the Midwest.
While the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade has guaranteed the right to an abortion since 1973, lawmakers and courts across the country continue to tussle over the boundaries of that reproductive freedom.
To those who oppose abortion, these constraints are considered the last defense of the unborn.
“I don’t think having few protections is something Illinois should celebrate,” said Emily Troscinski, executive director of the nonprofit Illinois Right to Life. “It is embarrassing, because we are so out of line with the rest of the Midwest when it comes to protecting women and the unborn.”
To those who support abortion rights, these measures are unnecessary burdens wielded inequitably by geography.
“It’s unfortunate that in some states politicians have felt they can restrict access, and that means women need to go out of state,” said Brigid Leahy, director of public policy for Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “Your rights shouldn’t depend on your ZIP code or the state you live in.”
Shrouded by privacy laws, data from the Illinois Department of Public Health reveal little about those who cross state lines to terminate pregnancies. But those who have shared their stories tell of the legal obstacles that led them to Illinois as well as their fears and frustrations. ‘I felt relieved’
A young woman from Missouri, just starting to meet her own needs, felt it would be unfair to bring a child into the world.
Her conservative Christian family was against abortion. Yet when she learned of her unplanned pregnancy, the young woman decisively chose to abort. No longer with her ex-boyfriend, finally independent but just starting to save her retail job paycheck, she said she couldn’t provide a good life for a baby.
“I don’t think I could make a child feel valued because I don’t know how to value myself,” she said. “I’m learning right now, I’m taking care of myself. I’m finally getting there.”
The only clinic in Missouri offering abortion services was hours from her home. Missouri also requires in-person counseling followed by a 72-hour waiting period, essentially requiring two trips to a clinic.
The young woman didn’t know how she could travel twice, and she also didn’t want to miss any days of work. Online, she found the nonprofit NARAL ProChoice Missouri and was advised to go to Illinois, which has no waiting period.
She would arrive home early the next morning. The entire trip took about 30 hours.
“I felt relieved,” she said. No good alternatives
An Indiana mother longed for a baby but terminated for medical reasons.
Cyndi Portteus, of the Indianapolis area, recalls her belly was already quite swollen by the ultrasound at 22 weeks, when she and her husband learned they were having a boy in August 2013. They both loved the name William.
But a fetal echocardiogram revealed the defect: hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which afflicts some 960 babies born in the United States each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The left side of the heart, the side responsible for pumping oxygenated blood throughout the body, was underdeveloped.
Specialists went over the options. One was a series of three open-heart surgeries followed by lifelong medical care. Portteus said her baby was given a 50 percent chance of survival to age 5. Another alternative was delivery followed by hospice care, keeping the baby comfortable until his natural death.
The third choice was termination for medical reasons.
Indiana law prohibits abortion past 20 weeks post-fertilization unless the woman’s life or physical health is endangered.
One week after that ultrasound, she was at a Chicago hospital getting a final physician opinion before terminating.
It was the right choice, she said, but one made with no good alternatives.
“Suddenly you’re not pregnant, and you don’t have a baby,” she said. “It’s awful.” A teen’s tale
A teen from Ohio came to Illinois seeking a judicial bypass so she could have an abortion without her parents learning of her pregnancy.
The young woman was just two months from her 18th birthday.
“It was a highly potentially dangerous situation for me, for my parents to know about this, especially my father,” the teen from Ohio recalled telling the judge.
The petite teen with long blond hair had bought her bus ticket to Chicago with a gift card, leaving no paper trail of her five-hour trip.
Her parents thought she was sleeping over at the home of a friend.
Illinois requires that minors notify a parent, grandparent, stepparent who lives in the home, or legal guardian before having an abortion. If a young woman doesn’t want a parent or other family member to find out, she has the legal right to request a waiver of parental notice. This process is known as judicial bypass.
The teen never tried to get a judicial bypass in Ohio; she said she had consulted an attorney back home and was told the process was very difficult. Ohio law also mandates in-person counseling followed by a 24-hour waiting period.
“Illinois was the closest place to me that had really any hope of a judicial bypass,” she said. “So that was my last resort.”