Indiana law banning most abortions goes into effect
CHICAGO (CBS) – Most abortions are now illegal in Indiana with a new law going into effect on Thursday.
The law makes exceptions for when the mother's life is at risk, or if there's a serious health risk for the mother. It also allows for exceptions in cases of rape or incest in the first 10 weeks.
But as CBS 2's Chris Tye found out, one of the other side effects is adding pressure on Illinois abortion clinics which are already overloaded.
It's unclear how many patients will be coming to Illinois for abortion care from Indiana, but when Wisconsin banned abortions earlier this year, Planned Parenthood of Illinois saw a ten-fold increase in patients coming from Wisconsin for care.
As a result of the news, Planned Parenthood of Illinois is expanding service in their downstate Champaign offices.
In Indiana, some clinics like one in South Bend announced they will stay open. They will continue to provide care, but not abortion services.
The clinics are trying to help patients find and fund out-of-state access to abortion and, in many cases, that means going to Illinois.
For many, the closest state will be Michigan, but for a huge number of patients, Illinois will be their best option. Illinois has also seen an influx of patients from Iowa, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Missouri.
"This is just going to put more pressure on the clinics that are already over-extended," said Sharon Lau, of Whole Woman's Health Alliance. "It's going to result in basically some cases of patients not being able to get services, most likely."
Also on Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) pushed back hard on efforts by Republican senators Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) to embrace a federal abortion ban after 15 weeks.
"This proposal makes obvious that republicans never really wanted to leave women's right to the states like they have told the American people," Duckworth said.
Opponents of the law are also concerned the abortion ban will only worsen Indiana's ranking as the third-worst in the country for maternal mortality rates.