On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which fabricated the “right to privacy,” making abortion legal throughout the nation.

The case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, centered around a Mississippi law that banned abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and has now put the battle to save pre-born human lives at the state level. It is no longer a protected “right” at the federal level. The case was decided by a 6 to 3 decision and means that the only abortion clinic in Mississippi will have to shut it’s doors when the state’s trigger law banning abortions takes effect in July.

Within the first few pages of the 213-page decision, Justice Samuel Alito stated there is no constitutional right to abortion. There is no federal protection of a civil “right” to kill pre-born babies.

Illinois Family Institute celebrates the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey v. Planned Parenthood that established that states cannot ban pre-viability abortions, i.e., those done before a child can survive outside the womb.

Governor J.B. Pritzker has made it abundantly clear that he intends to make the state of Illinois an abortion sanctuary. He, with the help of pro-abortion legislators, intends to force Illinois taxpayers to pay for all abortions.

Illinois Democrats have already removed all safeguards in the Land of Lincoln by repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion law.

Now they want physician assistants, nurses, and midwives along with other healthcare personnel to be legally able to commit abortions in Illinois in order to accommodate the flood of women coming across state lines. And several companies are offering to pay for women to travel to abortion states to kill their babies. Some pro-life leaders think that Illinois abortion numbers will increase by 25k to 30k a year.

In the ABC Nightly News segment below, they highlight the abortion mill in Fairview Heights and rightly point out that they are at the epicenter of this spiritual and political battle. In her report, Rachel Scott claims “the phones keep ringing. The staff are helping out-of-state patience secure transportation and hotels.” Dr. Colleen McNicholas admits that they are ground zero of this battle between life and death. She pridefully reports that they are facilitating the death of an unborn human being for women in “Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi.”

Our work to protect life is just beginning. Abortion cheerleaders are determined to make Illinois the destination point for the Midwest. Proverbs 24:11 exhorts us to “deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter.” We MUST respond with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to rescue innocent children and their mothers.

Illinois Family Institute upholds the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Please join us in the fight to protect the most innocent among us.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Planned Parenthood opened a new clinic in Waukegan, its 19^th in Illinois. Like its predecessor in Fairview Heights which opened last October, it was built in secret. The clinic, called The Waukegan Health Center, is located within a 1.5-mile radius of a middle and a high school.

Bonnie Quirke, president of Lake County Right to Life, learned of the clinic’s opening when, “I read an article in our local paper. The surprise was the stealth nature of it.”

“We knew it was coming, especially after the passage of last year’s Reproductive Health Act,” she shared. “Still, it was devastating.” The Reproductive Health Act, which allowed abortions throughout a woman’s pregnancy, was signed into law by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker in June 2019.

The Pro-Life Action League has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out more information about how the clinic was built.

Waukegan, located in Lake County, has the third largest population in the state of Illinois. It also has the fifth highest rate of uninsured residents, a growing number of which have tested positive for STDs, which Planned Parenthood cites as part of its rationale for placing a clinic in the city. Quirke noted, “The county health department is located not too far from the clinic. They do HIV and other testing, which is paid for with our tax dollars, therefore, free to the public.” That would make the clinic’s services a duplication of those offered by the county.

According to the media release from Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the clinic was originally scheduled to open in March, but was delayed due to the pandemic. While the release doesn’t mention surgical abortion services, it does list chemical abortions as one of the services it provides. However, when Quirke called the center, she was told the chemical abortion information was correct, only then to be informed that surgical abortions were going to be offered as well.

The new clinic has two procedure rooms, five exam rooms, plus a conference room and administrative space. The presence of the two procedure rooms gives further evidence surgical abortions will be performed.

Quirke went by the location, noticing the new landscaping with multiple fir trees, but the public sidewalks have been “torn up from around the building.” The center is located in a remodeled bank building and has 100 parking spaces. With so many parking spaces, trees, and removal of sidewalks, Planned Parenthood has removed the visibility of people entering and exiting the center. In addition, they’ve taken away legal public access for pro-life advocates to protest abortion and to counsel women.

In the release, Planned Parenthood lamented the prior lack of nearby abortion facilities, however Quirke pointed out there is clinic in nearby Kenosha, Wisconsin, just 20 minutes away. Including Waukegan, there are now 11 clinics in the greater Chicagoland area. The Planned Parenthood website states it has 18 clinics in Illinois, however, it does not list the Fairview Heights clinic which opened in Oct. 2019, making the count 19.

“Social problems are never solved by killing, they’re only exacerbated.” said Quirke. “The community should be outraged on all levels, including the spiritual level.”

She urged churches and church members to act. “Girls need to know there are other things we can provide. We have given up our religious rights, we have allowed abortion rights, and we have remained silent. We have to mobilize.”

Take ACTION: Quirke invited pro-life advocates to, “Come out and witness on Friday, May 22, at noon in front of the clinic.” Waukegan is a COVID-19 hotspot and proper social distancing is expected. Attendees should wear masks and stand at least 6 feet apart. The clinic is located at 1601 N Lewis Avenue in Waukegan. Click HERE for more information.

To learn more: Visit the Lake County Right to Life website, e-mail lakectyrtl@sbcglobal.net or call (847) 223-7022.

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As the Coronavirus pandemic wears on, government officials have shut down schools and businesses while stressing social distancing. The work continues to get personal protective equipment (PPE) into the hands of medical personnel with even elective surgeries canceled for the foreseeable future. However, the pandemic hasn’t slowed down the abortion industry. Several states have tried to close abortion clinics, calling the procedure an elective surgery that would take up medical resources, and Planned Parenthood has fought back in the courts to keep their doors open.

Only the state of Texas placed an outright ban on abortions as elective surgeries until the end of the pandemic. On April 7, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban that Texas governor Greg Abbott put in place categorizing an abortion as an elective surgery. Planned Parenthood has petitioned the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Other states that have deemed abortions to be elective surgeries are Alaska, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Ohio, and Oklahoma. The Oklahoma ban was blocked in court April 6.

In an April 3 letter to supporters, Jennifer Welch, president & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), shared, “To best serve our patients during this crisis, we have temporarily consolidated into six ‘Mission Health Centers’ to provide essential services including medical and in-clinic abortion care.” The six centers are located in Aurora, Flossmoor, Peoria, Springfield, and two in Chicago. However, eyewitnesses have noted that the Planned Parenthood in Fairview Heights has continued to receive patients.

National Planned Parenthood as well as PPIL have also continued to fund-raise heavily during the pandemic. In an apparent reference to the states that that don’t consider abortions essential medical procedures, Welch wrote, “We are also taking action against those who attempt to use the pandemic as an excuse to restrict health care for millions of people across the country.”

Abortions continue in Metro East area

In Illinois, the abortion industry is still going strong. The 18,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood abortion clinic built in secrecy in Fairview Heights and just 13 miles away from downtown St. Louis, Mo., has been a source of controversy since it opened in October 2019.

Angela Michael is a pro-life activist and head of Small Victories Pregnancy Outreach. Michael, a former obstetrical nurse, protests regularly outside the clinic in Fairview Heights and a nearby clinic in Granite City, called Hope Clinic. The latter is a privately-owned women’s health clinic that mainly provides abortions and sits across the street from the city’s only hospital.

Hope Clinic tweeted Governor JB Pritzker to complain about, and called the local police to disband, a group of protestors outside the clinic March 27. The group consisted of Michael and three others. Four police officers arrived, and Michael shared in a Facebook message that, perhaps upon seeing the body camera she was wearing, they told the pro-life advocates to “Have a nice day.”

Michael publishes eyewitness accounts from the two clinics almost daily to the Small Victories Pregnancy Outreach Facebook page. She has been noting the large groups of people entering the clinics, failing to practice social distancing, and cars traveling there from as far away as Colorado.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, there were 40 facilities providing abortions in Illinois in 2017, and 25 of those were abortion clinics.

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