This summer marked the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. To mark it, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission’s Brent Leatherwood told Baptist Press, “A new and vibrant culture of life is being established in our nation after decades of death caused by Roe v. Wade. That is worth celebrating.” But not in the state of Illinois where advocates already laid the groundwork for even wider abortion access. And, it’s worked with 54% more women coming to the state for abortions in the last year alone.
The June 24, 2022, Court decision, which overturned nearly 50 years of jurisprudence legalizing abortion throughout the nation, brought swift backlash from many in the establishment and popular culture. Supporters of abortion in Illinois were not caught by surprise and had long prepared for the possible overturn of Roe v. Wade planning to be a “safe haven or oasis” in the mostly conservative Midwest. In the last year, the state has become an abortion oasis surrounded by states which mostly ban or have strict abortion laws. A Bloomberg article called Illinois an abortion “sanctuary state” with Jennifer Welch, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL), even referring to the women who travel here for abortions as “healthcare refugees.”
According to PPIL, in the last year, women came to their Illinois facilities from 34 other states, up from the average of 20 over the last few years. Overall, PPIL said it’s seen a 54% increase in abortion patients, in both medication and procedural abortions, with 16 weeks of gestational age making up 13% of all procedural abortions, compared to 8% pre-Dobbs.
In the last year, Wyoming has banned abortion, Florida and South Carolina have enacted heartbeat bans, Nebraska and North Carolina have passed prohibitions on the procedure at 12 weeks gestation, and Utah has put a law in place that will close abortion clinics when their licenses expire. Utah’s law will eventually ban abortion in the state. The governor of Iowa recently signed a law banning abortion that is now being challenged in court. While Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban, eliminating the licenses for the state’s seven abortion facilities.
While Brentwood said Christians and others who support life should be heartened by such efforts, “Important work remains as abortion providers and the drug manufacturing industry prey upon vulnerable mothers and families in abortion destinations.”
He noted there are states like Illinois that “have tragically chosen to go in the opposite direction.” In the last year not only has Illinois strengthened its abortion laws, but so have Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Washington, and Vermont. As recently as early August, voters in Ohio approved a measure that will allow an amendment to be placed on the November ballot that will enshrine so-called “abortion rights” in the state’s constitution.
Praying against the darkness
Nikki Tibbetts is executive director of the Pregnancy Care Center of Rockford, in northern Illinois, and the wife of Heath, pastor at First Baptist Machesney Park. Since Dobbs, noted Tibbetts, “There’s been an increase in abortion clinics opening all around the state.” One new medical abortion clinic recently opened in Rockford and a surgical clinic will be opening soon. The city is located near the Iowa and Wisconsin borders and is situated near major interstates making it easier to access from western states with tighter abortion laws.
In the southern part of the state, Carbondale has become a new abortion destination with easy access to at least 11 pro-life states in the south. In March, Choices, an abortion facility formerly based in Tennessee where most abortions are banned, boasted performing just over 1,400 abortions since moving to the city five and a half months earlier. Most of its clients came from Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee. It’s one of at least three new clinics that have opened in the last year in a town that previously had no abortion facilities.
A recent poll by the Tarrance Group found 76% of voters support pro-life pregnancy centers like the one Tibbetts leads. But they can’t do the work alone. “Those of us working at Pregnancy Care Centers cannot do this work alone,” she pleaded. “We desperately need the Church because lives are counting on us to stay faithful.”
The state has tried to silence those centers through a new law, the Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act, which would require them to provide abortion information to their clients and impose fines of up to $50,000 for providing what abortion advocates deem “deceptive” information. The law—enacted on July 27 amending the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act—was designed to target pregnancy help ministries solely because of their pro-life message. On August 3, a federal judge in United States District Court granted a motion filed by the Thomas More Society to immediately block the law which only effected pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.
Tibbetts said her center offers mentoring programs but tells many of their clients “what they truly need is a connection with a local church… Centers desperately need more individuals and churches to come alongside and support families who need help and hope by not only supporting Centers financially, but also a willingness to invest in people’s lives.”
Kevin Carrothers, executive director of the Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS), says the sanctity of life is a gospel issue and abortion can be addressed biblically. In addition to the Children’s Home in Carmi, BCHFS also operates GraceHaven Pregnancy Resource Clinic and Angels’ Cove Maternity Center in Mt. Vernon.
Calling the days “dark,” he urged churches to “to be strong and courageous by focusing on the mission… and trusting the Lord” just Joshua did in the Old Testament.
At the same time, he asks Baptists to pray for Illinois and its leadership saying we live in a time like that of the Apostle Paul. “Those ancient societies did not value life nor protect the life of the defenseless and vulnerable,” said Carrothers, “yet God wanted His people to pray for them.”
It’s going to take a lot of prayer in a state where its governor celebrated the anniversary with what he called “How I successfully defended abortion after Dobbs” in an editorial for Salon Magazine.
Governor J.B. Pritzker described the decision as having “unleashed chaos” and pledged that under his leadership the state “will remain a haven” for women seeking an abortion as he and other state leaders work to “to meet the demand of patients seeking reproductive freedom who are flooding in from across the nation.”
No matter what, it’s important advocates for life to not give up hope, and recognize that God is in control, said Molly Malone Rumley, the Assistant Legislative Chairman, Illinois Right to Life. “As Southern Baptists living in a state as dark as Illinois, we have a massive opportunity to make a huge impact on the abortion debate,” she declared. While Malone Rumley may find the recent statistics from PPIL “sickening,” she said they “demonstrate all the work there is to be done.”
For her, it’s important that Christians not remain silent. “Talk about the issues in the church context,” she pressed. “Let women know that they have access to the resources they need, but also that for the Christian, being anti-abortion is non-negotiable.”
Pro-life Illinoisans must remember they are not alone. “He [God] sees the injustice of the taking of innocent human life, and he will ensure that justice is carried out,” she stated. “In the meantime, with his help, we must do whatever we can to end the atrocity.”