Chicago | For the third straight year, Illinois is the top destination in the nation for women traveling out of their own states for abortions. That report comes at the same time an Illinois organization paying for those travel costs reports having a $14 million budget to support the industry.
The Chicago Tribune reported one-in-four women who crossed state lines for abortions in 2025 came to Illinois – that’s 32,000 women. The data was obtained from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion group formerly associated with Planned Parenthood. Overall, 142,000 women traveled to another state last year to have an abortion.
Abortion advocates celebrated the designation as an honor, calling Illinois’ abortion access “the gold standard.” Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) which paid $10 million in travel expenses last year, said other states should “be like Illinois” in the April 26 article.
Kevin Carrothers strongly disagrees. The Executive Director of Baptist Children’s Home and Family Services (BCHFS) told the Illinois Baptist, “The growing reality of the culture of death in Illinois called abortion should grieve the church but also be a call to action,” he said.
“While defending the life of the unborn, we have the opportunity to care for women and families feeling the cultural pressure to terminate their preborn child,” Carrothers said. “By sharing practical support and offering hope in Jesus Christ, women can choose life.”
The ministries of BCHFS include Angels’ Cove Maternity Home and GraceHaven Pregnancy Resource Clinic, both based in Mt. Vernon, and Faith Adoption Services.
Jeyifo told the Tribune the state’s abortion access “would be impossible without collaboration between funders, clinics, and government agencies.”
The organization’s reported annual operating budget is $14.3 million, the largest such fund in the nation, including monies from the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the State of Illinois along with fundraising efforts and private donations. The Chicago Abortion Fund reported receiving 20,000 requests for travel assistance in 2025, and more than 50,000 since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing states that wanted to restrict or outlaw abortion. Illinois moved the opposite direction, enshrining abortion in its legal code.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPI) opened a clinic in far southern Illinois, in Carbondale in 2023, for women traveling from southern states. As of June 2025, PPI reported 90% of the women seen at the clinic for an abortion traveled from out-of-state.
Carrothers encouraged Illinois Baptist churches to take a stand and support life. “In a state receiving many women from surrounding states for abortion, the church stands as a sign of hope and compassion through prayer, counseling, and support for pregnancy resource clinics, adoption care, and maternity homes,” Carrothers said. “These are tangible ways to give testimony to the Lord who values life and offers new beginnings in Christ.”