According to a report earlier this year from the Guttmacher Institute, an organization that advocates for and researches abortion access, nearly a quarter of all people seeking an abortion outside the state where they live came to Illinois.

The push comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling blocked a lower court decision that temporarily prohibited the use of telehealth for abortion care.

Illinois Medicaid and private insurance plans are already required to cover abortion services.

Since 2022, Illinois has seen more travelers seeking abortions from out of state than any other state in the country.

Illinois health care providers are bracing for more patients after Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin paused abortions last week. Local organizations like Planned Parenthood of Illinois have said they anticipate an uptick in out-of-state patients and are preparing to meet the increased demand.

“Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion but says I am in favor of the death penalty’ is not really pro-life,” Pope Leo XIV said. “Someone who says that ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants in the United States,’ I don’t know if that’s pro-life.”

While Planned Parenthood of Illinois is also affected by Medicaid reimbursement cuts, President and CEO Adrienne White-Faines said the organization is not planning to make any changes to services in Illinois.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a new memoir defends her vote reversing a half century of national abortion rights, declaring that Roe v. Wade usurped the will of the American people and “came at a cost.”

Two bills aimed at further protecting reproductive rights in Illinois were signed by Gov. JB Pritzker on Friday, expanding protections to health care providers and making contraception and medication abortion more accessible to college students.

Texas Democrats gathered with Planned Parenthood affiliate leaders Wednesday in Chicago to highlight Illinois’ role in providing reproductive care for Texas patients and to warn how the dismantling of sexual and reproductive care in Texas threatens access in other states.

Nearly 30,000, or more than 40%, of Planned Parenthood of Illinois patients use Medicaid to access health care services at Planned Parenthood’s health centers, according to the organization.

The bill, passed late last week and signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, will bar Medicaid users from coverage with a health care provider that also provides abortion services.

The statute Wisconsin legislators adopted in 1849, widely interpreted as a near-total ban on abortions, made it a felony for anyone other than the mother or a doctor in a medical emergency to destroy “an unborn child.”

Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias asked the attorney general to review the matter. He also is creating an audit system to ensure police departments don’t run afoul of a 2023 law banning the distribution of license-plate data to track women seeking abortions or to find undocumented immigrants.

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke called on legislators to pass a bill that would amend the terrorism article of the state’s criminal code to include language protecting reproductive health care facilities.

About 35,000 out-of-state patients traveled to Illinois for an abortion last year, accounting for 39% of all abortions provided in the state, according to a recent study.