SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — Gov. JB Pritzker announced Monday that Illinois is spending its own money, along with a $5.4 million grant from the federal government, to expand access to abortion and family planning services for low-income women across the state.
The state will spend $5.8 million of revenue funds to complete the $11.2 million funding plan, which will go to 98 family planning clinics throughout the state, including Planned Parenthood.
Pritzker is taking aggressive precautions in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade case, as a leaked draft ruling has implied it will do, by bolstering access to abortion at home.
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it would leave the decision of whether or not to allow abortion to individual states.
The new funds will support access to Title X services under the Illinois Family Planning Program now that the Biden administration has reversed a rule which prevented family planning clinics from referring patients to abortion providers.
Title X provides health services such as abortion, HIV prevention and testing, breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment for thousands of low-income and uninsured Illinois women each year.
“Let this record-breaking investment remind women that the state of Illinois trusts you to make your own choices. To choose what contraceptives are right for you. To choose whether you want to be a parent or not. And we will make sure that—on top of protecting your right to choose—you get the care that you deserve,” Pritzker said Monday.
Planned Parenthood withdrew from Title X in 2019 after Pritzker announced the state would forego funding under the Trump administration’s anti-abortion stance.