South West Illinois News

The United States Supreme Court decision Friday reversing the  Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion "actually means nothing changes in Illinois," State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) said on Facebook.

"Basically, in Illinois, you can still get an abortion at any time, for any reason, up to and including partial birth abortion," the senator said. "By the way, it's 100% taxpayer-funded. Women who are pregnant automatically qualify for Medicaid, and Illinois cannot reimburse the federal dollars for those abortions that are performed. You also are not required to show any income verification, so you can make as much as you want and still qualify for free abortions."

The senator also commented on the possibility of Gov. J.B. Pritzker calling the Legislature back into session as a result of the ruling.

 "So here are the two things that I'm hearing when he calls us back into special session," she wrote. "He wants to reimburse women who come to Illinois and seek abortions, so remember we are paying 100% for someone to have an abortion. So now it's gonna be individuals - if Gov. Pritzker gets his way and the majority party will be paying 100% of an abortion for someone coming from another state, or even another country."

Bryant went on to say that the reimbursement of people who travel to Illinois is likely to be the first topic discussed in special session, and she spoke on yet another abortion-related issue.

"The other thing that he (Pritzker) and the majority party are seeking is the ability for other than positions from non-physicians to be able to perform abortions. So not only are they- are we going to have taxpayers 100% funded abortions at any time for any reason."

The Supreme Court announced a 6-3 decision overturning the protections of Roe v. Wade on June 24, Politico and other outlets reported.

The majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, hewed closely to the draft version obtained exclusively by Politico and published in early May, the website reported.

In its official opinion, the court’s conservative majority went beyond simply resolving the case before them —  Mississippi’s near-ban on abortion at 15 weeks of pregnancy — and instead overturned both Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey,  long-standing precedents that barred states from banning abortion before the point of fetal viability.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision," Alito wrote. “This court cannot bring about the permanent resolution of a rancorous national controversy simply by dictating a settlement and telling the people to move on.”                

In the wake of the ruling Pritzker wants Illinois to become "an abortion hub", Bryant said.

"If we're called back into special session, it looks like babies are being killed all over the country, they're being killed at a ridiculous rate in Illinois and now we're gonna continue to be and expand on being the abortion hub of the United states," she wrote.

Bryant likened it to hanging a welcome sign for those seeking an abortion.

"So J.B. Pritzker has put out a welcome sign, so everybody around the country - if someone wants to get abortion come to Illinois, guess what taxpayers of Illinois? You'll be paying for 100%. I'll be 'hell no' on any of these attempts."