Professors Jason Mazzone and Robin Fretwell Wilson spoke to WGLT out of Illinois State University about how the overturning of Roe v. Wade may impact abortion access in McLean County.

According to the article, a Planned Parenthood in Bloomington has already seen a 33% increase in out of state abortion patients in the weeks since the Supreme Court decision. Estimates for the number of out of state patients Illinois can expect vary, but Wilson and Mazzone say it could be much higher than the 20,000 to 30,000 that Planned Parenthood is expecting. 

“And we just did some basic math, and it nets out to something like three to four times the number of abortions coming our way than we did this time last year. With what’s basically a stable number of facilities,” said Wilson, who co-directs U of I’s Epstein Health Law and Policy Program.

Illinois’ abortion providers are concentrated in Chicago, Wilson said. And the cost of an overnight stay in Chicago may be too high for some patients, she said.

“In the center of the state, you don’t have the desert effect that you have at the bottom of the state. But I think you’ll have (in cities like Bloomington) an inundation effect if people are driving.”

The increase in demand may put in-state patients at a disadvantage, although Mazzone said that it’s a complicated legal question as to whether a state can prioritize abortion care for in-state residents, even if it wanted to.

Read the full article at wglt.org.