{"id":9171,"date":"2026-04-16T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:00:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:00:30","slug":"nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 1 in 4 people seeking abortions out of state chose Illinois. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"614\" src=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/abortion-map-e1776297425787.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A color-coded map illustrates state abortion access in the call center at Chicago\u2019s Family Planning Associates, one of the largest independent clinics in Illinois offering abortion services. Nearly 1 in 4 people traveling to another state for abortion care went to Illinois, according to a recent report. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Allison Cowett)\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><figcaption>\n<p>A color-coded map illustrates state abortion access in the call center at Chicago\u2019s Family Planning Associates, one of the largest independent clinics in Illinois offering abortion services. Nearly 1 in 4 people traveling to another state for abortion care went to Illinois, according to a recent report (photo submitted)<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>At Family Planning Associates in Chicago, in the office where staff take phone calls from potential abortion patients, a U.S. map colored in with red and green dry-erase markers notes the latest status of abortion access in every state. The map can change at any time.<\/p>\n<p>In the center of the map\u2019s biggest sea of red is Illinois, outlined in green \u2014 showing it\u2019s a state with strong abortion access \u2014 surrounded by several states that ban or severely restrict abortion. Illinois is the destination for nearly 1 in 4 people traveling to another state for abortion care, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.guttmacher.org\/report\/full-year-estimates-show-overall-stability-abortion-incidence-decreased-travel-increased-telehealth-provision?emci=d39742e7-cf2d-f111-9a48-000d3a14b640&amp;emdi=5ef0ef7b-d62d-f111-9a48-000d3a14b640&amp;ceid=2088283\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> from the Guttmacher Institute, an advocacy and research organization that supports abortion access and tracks data nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIllinois really became kind of a haven state for the Midwest and much of the South immediately post-Dobbs,\u201d said Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, which provides logistical and financial support to people who need abortions.<\/p>\n<p>The state\u2019s geography explains part of its popularity; in five of the six border states, abortion is either banned or largely inaccessible. But Illinois also is among the states that have put in place new policies \u2014 along with millions of dollars \u2014 to welcome patients who aren\u2019t their residents. Advocates and providers say other safe-haven states should replicate the investments.<\/p>\n<div class=\" newsroomBlockQuoteContainer  \">\n<div class=\"newsroomBlockQuoteSVGContainer\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"newsroomBlockQuoteQuoteContainer\">\n<p class=\"newsroomBlockQuote \">Illinois really became kind of a haven state for the Midwest and much of the South immediately post-Dobbs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"newsroomBlockQuoteAuthorContainer\">\n<p><b>\u2013 Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>That\u2019s happened most recently in Maine and Washington state, where governors approved funding to support family planning and abortion care, including for out-of-state patients.<\/p>\n<p>Since the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion and allowed states to regulate the procedure, 13 states have implemented near-total abortion bans, and seven others have bans after six to 12 weeks. Although about one-quarter of people who need an abortion now obtain medication by telemedicine, many who live in states with bans still have to travel elsewhere for various reasons, including <a href=\"https:\/\/mississippitoday.org\/2026\/04\/01\/mississippi-abortion-medication\/\" target=\"_blank\">fear of prosecution<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Guttmacher\u2019s data showed that fewer people traveled for care in the past two years than the peak of 170,000 who traveled in 2023, the year after Dobbs.<\/p>\n<p>That number fell to about 155,000 in 2024, including 35,000 who went to Illinois, the data showed. Last year, an estimated 142,000 abortion patients traveled out of state, with a fairly consistent number, about 32,000, going to Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>The next-highest destination after Illinois was North Carolina, followed by New Mexico and Kansas.<\/p>\n<p>Guttmacher and other advocates attribute part of that decrease in the national numbers to wider availability of telehealth access to abortion medication that can be mailed to patients in other states. There were an estimated 1.1 million abortions across the United States in 2025, about the same amount as 2024 but the highest number since 2009, according to Guttmacher.<\/p>\n<p>Shield laws protect health care providers in many states, including California, Illinois and New York. Those laws have prevented Republican attorneys general in other states, such as Texas and Louisiana, from trying to punish providers who prescribe the drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Louisiana has unsuccessfully tried to charge and extradite doctors from California and New York, and is also suing the federal government to remove the provision that allows abortion medication to be prescribed by telehealth. A federal judge <a href=\"https:\/\/stateline.org\/2026\/04\/07\/louisiana-judge-preserves-telehealth-abortion-access-provision-for-now-puts-case-on-hold\/\" target=\"_blank\">put the case on hold<\/a> for now as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration completes a safety review.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"editorialSubhed\">Policy changes in Illinois<\/h4>\n<p>Illinois\u2019 \u201chaven\u201d status is derided by anti-abortion groups, who call the state\u2019s policies extreme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe abortion industry in Illinois is the wild west, which is clear by these numbers,\u201d said Mary Kate Zander, president and CEO of Illinois Right to Life, to the Chicago Sun-Times, speaking about the Guttmacher report.<\/p>\n<p>One state changing its laws to restrict abortion access can lead to a significant influx of patients traveling to clinics in other states. Dr. Allison Cowett, chief medical and advocacy officer for Family Planning Associates, said when six-week abortion bans went into effect in Florida and Georgia in May and October of 2024, respectively, many more patients from the South started coming to Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithin the first few months after Dobbs, we had more than 1 in 3 patients coming from outside Illinois, and that has maintained for those three, almost four years,\u201d Cowett said.<\/p>\n<p>Illinois also borders Indiana, which has a near-total abortion ban in place. Cowett said Indiana residents were the largest percentage of out-of-state abortion patients at her clinic before 2022, and it has stayed that way.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"WwEWBEhng5\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/10\/03\/repub\/restricting-cutting-medicaid-funding-shifts-more-reproductive-health-care-to-telemedicine\/\">Restricting, cutting Medicaid funding shifts more reproductive health care to telemedicine<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jeyifo said when she started as a volunteer with the Chicago Abortion Fund in 2016, the organization couldn\u2019t financially support large numbers of out-of-state patients because Illinois didn\u2019t invest in access the way it does now. The biggest change came in 2018, when Illinois allowed its state Medicaid program to cover abortion procedures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would not have been able to expand our support outside of Illinois residents without that coverage,\u201d Jeyifo said.<\/p>\n<p>Nineteen other states allow their Medicaid program to cover abortion procedures, according to KFF, a health policy research group.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, Democratic lawmakers in Illinois allocated $10 million from the state health department to establish the Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access, known as CARLA, a hotline for the Chicago Abortion Fund and four area hospitals to help coordinate care. Jeyifo said more than 1,000 people have received assistance through that hotline in the years since.<\/p>\n<p>The state has also helped fill in lost Medicaid funding after Congress passed a provision blocking federal Medicaid payments to certain abortion providers, mainly targeting Planned Parenthood, and it has helped pay for<a href=\"https:\/\/dph.illinois.gov\/resource-center\/news\/2024\/april\/2024-04-11---idph-awards--2-million-in-training-grants-to-3-grou.html\" target=\"_blank\"> training and other programs<\/a> that help connect people with care.<\/p>\n<p>In January, the state launched a new partnership with the Chicago-based Michael Reese Health Trust to establish the Prairie State Access Fund, which will provide aid to out-of-state patients in need of reproductive and gender-affirming health care.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is this model for other receiving states around the country to take up and learn about, because the proximity on a map is important, but the resources that are available once you get to a place are so much more important,\u201d Jeyifo said.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"editorialSubhed\">Finding nearby states<\/h4>\n<p>The Guttmacher report showed 62,000 of the 142,000 people who traveled came from states with near-total bans, more than double the number who traveled from those states before 2022. But it has declined over the past year, down from 74,000 who traveled from those states in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The next-highest state for travelers, North Carolina, is relatively close to Georgia and Florida. The number of out-of-state travelers has remained steady there since 2024, even though North Carolina has a 12-week ban and a three-day waiting period for abortions.<\/p>\n<p>In New Mexico and Kansas, about two-thirds of all abortions provided were for people traveling from outside the state, but those numbers are going down. New Mexico is often a destination for people from Texas, and Kansas borders Oklahoma, two states with strict bans. Kansas also borders Missouri; voters in 2024 passed a constitutional amendment legalizing abortion, but <a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2025\/12\/05\/missouri-abortion-legal-access-hinges-courts-rebuilding\/\" target=\"_blank\">access has not returned<\/a>, and lawmakers are trying to reverse the amendment in <a href=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/2026\/03\/30\/missouri-abortion-amendment-3-campaign-effort-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\">this year\u2019s midterm elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30357\" src=\"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/abortion-travel-clinic.jpeg\" alt=\"A staff member at Family Planning Associates in Chicago gathers supplies from a room in the clinic stocked with toiletries, basic clothing, shoes and other items for patient care packages. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Allison Cowett)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"937\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A staff member at Family Planning Associates in Chicago gathers supplies from a room in the clinic stocked with toiletries, basic clothing, shoes and other items for patient care packages. (Photo courtesy of Dr. Allison Cowett)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Family Planning Associates is one of the largest independent abortion clinics in Illinois. It expanded its staff \u2014 including doctors, nurses and front desk workers \u2014 during the first year after Dobbs from about 40 people to more than 70 to handle the new patient volume, Cowett said. The clinic also expanded its physical space by about two-thirds.<\/p>\n<p>Many of those who come from the South have never left their home state, Cowett said, and it can be overwhelming for them to come to a big city during an already emotional event. The abortion fund and others help supply a closet in the clinic that is stocked with toiletries, basic clothing, shoes and other items to assemble care packages for patients.<\/p>\n<p>The state has also provided security infrastructure grants to nonprofits to protect against potential attacks, such as a clinic firebombing in Peoria, Illinois, in 2023, two days after Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed abortion protections into law. No one was in the building at the time.<\/p>\n<p>Such aid was especially important for the Choices: Center for Reproductive Health clinic in Carbondale, a city at the southern tip of Illinois and the intersection of neighboring states with strong anti-abortion laws: Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a much shorter drive to Carbondale for people in those states than it is to Chicago, said Jennifer Pepper, Choices president and CEO, and it\u2019s a more familiar, smaller area.<\/p>\n<p>The state grant allowed them to harden the physical security of the clinic in Carbondale, Pepper said, which is something they haven\u2019t been able to do for their sister location in Memphis, Tennessee. That clinic provides birth control, wellness exams and midwifery services, but receives no state support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve never had state support in all of our 52 years in Tennessee,\u201d Pepper said.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"editorialSubhed\">State assistance<\/h4>\n<p>Other states with Democratic leadership and protective abortion laws are starting to approve more funding to support reproductive health care.<\/p>\n<p>Maine Gov. Janet Mills signed a budget bill Friday that includes funding for lost Medicaid reimbursements and creates an ongoing $5 million annual appropriation for family planning services. Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed<a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/billsummary\/?BillNumber=6182&amp;Year=2025&amp;Initiative=false\" target=\"_blank\"> a law<\/a> in late March establishing a<a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonstatestandard.com\/2026\/03\/09\/fee-on-health-insurers-to-fund-abortion-services-debated-in-wa-legislature\/\" target=\"_blank\"> new revenue source<\/a> for abortion care by implementing a tax on health insurance companies that is expected to generate about $10 million in the first year and about $2 million in each subsequent year.<\/p>\n<p>Jeyifo, of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said she hopes to see more of those efforts in other states with laws that are supportive of reproductive health care, including ones with Democratic leadership that could be doing more to expand clinic availability and rescind waiting periods, such as the 24-hour waiting requirement that still exists in Wisconsin before a patient can get an abortion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo many states in our region could be doing more just for their own residents, let alone people traveling,\u201d Jeyifo said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:kmoseley@stateline.org\">kmoseley@stateline.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"snrPubNote\">\n<p>This story was originally produced by <a href=\"https:\/\/stateline.org\/2026\/04\/15\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/\" target=\"_blank\">Stateline<\/a>, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Missouri Independent, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A color-coded map illustrates state abortion access in the call center at Chicago\u2019s Family Planning Associates, one of the largest independent clinics in Illinois offering abortion services. Nearly 1 in 4 people traveling to another state for abortion care went to Illinois, according to a recent report (photo submitted) At Family Planning Associates in Chicago,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Nearly 1 in 4 people seeking abortions out of state chose Illinois. Here\u2019s why - WestplexNews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Nearly 1 in 4 people seeking abortions out of state chose Illinois. Here\u2019s why - WestplexNews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A color-coded map illustrates state abortion access in the call center at Chicago\u2019s Family Planning Associates, one of the largest independent clinics in Illinois offering abortion services. 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Here\u2019s why - WestplexNews.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Nearly 1 in 4 people seeking abortions out of state chose Illinois. Here\u2019s why - WestplexNews.com","og_description":"A color-coded map illustrates state abortion access in the call center at Chicago\u2019s Family Planning Associates, one of the largest independent clinics in Illinois offering abortion services. Nearly 1 in 4 people traveling to another state for abortion care went to Illinois, according to a recent report (photo submitted) At Family Planning Associates in Chicago,...","og_url":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/","og_site_name":"WestplexNews.com","article_published_time":"2026-04-16T11:00:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/missouriindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/abortion-map-e1776297425787.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Brad Hildebrand","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brad Hildebrand","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/nearly-1-in-4-people-seeking-abortions-out-of-state-chose-illinois-heres-why\/"},"author":{"name":"Brad Hildebrand","@id":"https:\/\/westplexnews.com\/#\/schema\/person\/86ac6e2a917ca881b22f6d55d1b955f0"},"headline":"Nearly 1 in 4 people seeking abortions out of state chose Illinois. 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