By Dave Andrusko
In a story that could be easily used by the Abortion Industry to fundraise, the Chicago Sun-Times ran an account Monday that virtually gushed over with enthusiasm for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign to make Illinois a true abortion “safe haven”.
Reporter Tina Sfondele begins her account by writing “Since Roe v. Wade has been overturned, Pritzker and the Democrat-led Illinois General Assembly have further expanded abortion rights in Illinois — seeking to create a safe haven for patients traveling from states that have banned abortions.” Among the many “steps” Pritzker is taking to expand “abortion care” in Illinois is creating “a new hotline to help patients with hospital navigation, pre-operative testing and arranging payment and transportation.”
That hotline– the Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access or CARLA for short–will be run by the Illinois Department of Health and Family Services, the Illinois Department of Public Health, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Rush University System for Health and (of course) the Chicago Abortion Fund.
But that’s just the beginning of Pritzker’s campaign to make Illinois the abortion capital of the Midwest. “The governor’s office also announced a request for proposals for a separate abortion service navigation hotline to help patients find abortion care in Illinois, including those traveling from states in which abortions are banned, with funding coming from the Health and Family Services Department’s budget and Medicaid dollars.”
Warming to the task Pritzker announced a new $5 million grant program to help abortion providers expand their practices and establish mobile abortion facilities to increase access to baby killing.
Megan Jeyifo is the executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund. She said on Monday that
her organization helps up to 300 people a week access reproductive care and has received more than 10,000 calls in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Her organization saw an increase from 26 hospital-based patients in 2021 to 250 in 2022, with many of those patients coming from 19 states where abortions are banned.
Jeyifo said the nurse-staffed hotline program CARLA will strengthen the working relationships with four major Chicago hospitals and make sure that callers can get access to care as soon as possible
In their efforts to expand the killing fields “they are neglecting the real needs of pregnant mothers, most of whom seek abortions because they struggle to find resources.” Micaiah Bilger wrote. “A new study published in the journal Cureus found two thirds of women seeking abortions would have chosen life for their babies if they had better support.”
As is readily apparent, Illinois has some of the nation’s most pro-abortion laws. Last week, Bilger wrote,
pregnancy resource centers sued the state after the legislature passed a law that could shut down pro-life charities. These organizations offer free pregnancy and parenting help to thousands of Illinois families every year.
In 2021, the state legislature also ignored the public’s wishes and voted to repeal the parental notification law, which required at least one parent to be notified before their underage daughter has an abortion.
That same year, 46,243 unborn babies were killed in abortions, according to statistics from the state health department. The number increased in 2022 after neighboring states enacted laws to protect unborn babies and Illinois leaders began promoting abortion tourism.
Pritzker added his own rhetorical flourish. “But in the Land of Lincoln, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to maintain and expand reproductive health access for patients and protect providers,” he said.
Old Abe must be turning over in his grave.