In search of abortion, women are flocking to Illinois

All eyes were on Texas, one of the most restrictive states for abortion laws, as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down some of those limits late last month.

But some of the toughest abortion regulations in the country are actually in Midwestern states. In Missouri, women must meet with a counselor, then wait up to 72 hours before getting the procedure. In Wisconsin, public money for abortions is limited to women whose health is in danger or who are victims of rape or incest. Then there's Indiana, led by Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican who this past spring signed a law that bans abortions for women whose babies have a fetal abnormality, such as Down syndrome. That law was just struck down by a federal judge.

As neighboring states clamp down on access to abortion, women are flocking across the border to one of Illinois' Planned Parenthood health centers or to private providers. Planned Parenthood of Illinois saw a 20 percent spike in medical visits overall last year. The state sending the most patients over? Indiana. In 2015, 44 percent of all visits from Indiana natives were for an abortion. This year, that jumped to 57 percent.

The Chicago-based nonprofit, which had $27.2 million in 2015 revenue, says business is up across all of its service lines, from birth control (the most popular offering), to STD testing and abortions. To handle the increasing demand, it has renovated clinics, hired more doctors and lengthened clinic hours. Planning is underway for its 18th health center, likely in southern Cook County.

“People who come in from out of state, they are welcome here,” says Linda Diamond Shapiro, interim CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “I can really say we would be thrilled if we could put ourselves out of business because other states got better laws.”

Private providers are also seeing an uptick in out-of-state patients. Dr. Allison Cowett, associate medical director at Family Planning Associates, a private clinic that performs abortions in the West Loop, says her patients come from throughout the Midwest.

“When we talk to patients about why they're here as opposed to being in their own state, the most common responses are waiting periods,” Cowett says. In Illinois, adults can have an abortion performed the same day as a consultation. The state, though, does require women who are 17 or younger to notify an adult relative or secure a waiver from a judge.

Despite the Supreme Court's Texas ruling, it's unlikely that states with tough abortion laws will ease those restrictions anytime soon. And that means out-of-state patients will continue to come to Illinois.

“I do think some restrictions will fall, but it's also just incredibly difficult to open a clinic,” says Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit in New York that tracks abortion laws nationwide. Many states have actually gotten more restrictive since tea party candidates swept into state legislative seats in 2010. As a result, many clinics across the country have closed.

When facilities shutter in one state, women often will travel to a neighboring one, so lawmakers have started targeting doctors to make it even more burdensome, says Ted Joyce, a professor who studies the economics of reproductive health at City University of New York. A spate of new laws requires doctors to have staffing privileges at hospitals where they perform abortions—a tough feat in places where patients rely on doctors flying in from elsewhere in the country to perform procedures. Some states have mandated that facilities providing abortions meet the same state standards as outpatient surgery centers, a potential regulatory and financial hurdle.

In Indiana, only six physician practices can legally perform abortions now. That's about half as many as before 2010, says Patti Stauffer, vice president of policy for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. The lack of access and, in some cases, having to travel hours even in Indiana to get an abortion are “barriers women have to navigate,” she says.

Indiana State Sen. Liz Brown, a Republican who has filed or supported abortion laws that call for more regulation, doesn't view the laws as barriers. To her, they are meant to protect women and their unborn children. “We place the burden on the physician and the clinic to make sure that they're providing adequate care and ensuring the health of the mother,” Brown says.

When asked if she's concerned about women crossing the border to get an abortion and taking their business with them, she quips that plenty of Illinois companies have fled to Indiana.

"In search of abortion, women are flocking to Illinois" originally appeared on the website of Crain's Chicago Business.