CHICAGO — Illinois’ role as a haven of abortion care in the Midwest was magnified Friday, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a watershed decision that reverses nearly a half-century of federally protected reproductive freedoms.
Roe was struck down when Supreme Court voted 6-3 on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, upholding the legality of a 2018 Mississippi law that banned abortion past 15 weeks gestation. A leaked draft opinion last month indicated a majority of justices were planning to overturn federal abortion rights.
In the absence of Roe, the 1973 landmark case that guaranteed the right to terminate a pregnancy, the matter of abortion law falls to the states. Terminating a pregnancy is expected to be banned or significantly curtail in roughly half of all states in the nation — including nearly every state in the Midwest.
