Woman who had tax-funded abortion says they ‘help people in bad situations,’ but critics decry public money for ‘immoral act’
Recently unemployed and barely getting by, she also wasn't sure how to come up with the money for an abortion, the choice she deemed right given her tight finances and life circumstances.
The 24-year-old with red highlights woven in a long braid contemplated selling her television or one of the few other items in her one-bedroom apartment on the city's
"I don't have any help," she said, awaiting her appointment on a recent weekday at the
The patient was surprised and relieved to learn state Medicaid would cover the cost of the roughly
"I didn't know what I was going to do," she said, asking to remain anonymous. "I'm thankful I was able to use the medical card because I don't have the money right now."
Even in a state considered a reproductive rights haven within the more restrictive Midwest, debate over House Bill 40 divided
State officials had projected the cost at roughly
While it's too soon to tally the annual cost or participation, women who've received assistance under the new law said its impact has been enormous.
Supporters urged its passage by donning red robes and white bonnets in a succession of "The Handmaid's Tale" protests, a nod to the dystopian novel and TV series. Republican Gov.
Anti-abortion organizations and some Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit to block the legislation; an
"The fact that the government is using taxpayer money to fund abortion is reprehensible to me," said
The young woman wasn't aware of the new law until she called to schedule the procedure a few days prior.
For her and other low-income patients in the crowded clinic waiting room, the expanded coverage meant access to an abortion despite their economic constraints.
"Everybody doesn't have the same privileges," she said.
'I felt all the pain'
Asking for help has always been hard.
"People will tell you, 'Oh, keep the baby, an abortion's not good,'" the young woman with the braid said wearily in one of the health center's small counseling rooms. "But as soon as you don't do it and your baby's here, guess what, everybody disappeared. The baby's here, and nobody's going to actually help you at all."
This was the case about two years ago when she gave birth to her daughter. The young mother scrolled through dozens of images on her phone of the grinning toddler, who already knows her numbers and letters.
"She's very smart. She's going to go far in life," the single mom said. "By her having a strong mother in me ... she won't be alone. I need to provide for her like I've been doing, rather than bring somebody else until we're all the way stable."
They share their apartment's only bedroom, sleeping in adjacent beds. There is no room for anyone else, she said.
The woman has had jobs at grocery stores and restaurants and is now searching for similar work. Her dream is to earn a culinary degree and become a chef, but she has no baby sitter or car or steady income.
Swelling and tenderness in her breasts were the first signs of the unplanned pregnancy, which was confirmed by an ultrasound at the clinic. Right away, she decided to terminate.
"It wasn't a hard decision to make," she said, "because I know what's important. I know what I'm capable of doing and what I'm not capable of doing. It would be a bad idea to be really struggling more than I am right now."
A few inches from her hand, a wicker basket displayed samples of various birth control devices -- a vaginal ring, an IUD, an implant encased in plush material to simulate its texture under the flesh of an arm.
The young woman said she was on a contraceptive patch but conceived between applications when she had difficulty getting refills from the pharmacy.
About a year ago, she had another abortion at
"I had to go around asking for it," she said. "And when you borrow money, people want to know what it's for. ... Then people look at you funny, like, 'Oh, why are you doing this?' You don't want to involve people because they're going to give their opinion and talk about you and spread it on to the next person."
She came to
"I had to be woke, and I felt all the pain," she said, shuddering at the memory. "It's very sharp. ... The pain is over quick, but you're still not going to forget that pain."
In 1980, the county banned the procedure at the hospital except in cases endangering the life of the woman.
Referring to the county hospital as an "abortion mill," then-
"It's a matter of priorities," Dunne had told the Tribune back then. "A woman who wants to pay for her abortion should go to a private hospital or doctor, but we shouldn't be staffing (an abortion clinic at
At the time, an estimated 3,500 pregnancies were terminated there annually. The change was abrupt: The first day, 18 women who had already scheduled the procedure were denied, the Tribune reported.
Amid protests and litigation, abortion services were restored 12 years later under the leadership of a new county board president,
"Every woman in this country has a legal right to an abortion," Phelan had said. "By denying poor women access, we deprive them of their constitutional rights just as surely as if we refused to allow them to vote. We must level the playing field and right the wrong."
'I've got to see my other kids grow up'
A woman in a long dress pressed a heat pack to her belly on a recent afternoon at the
The 37-year-old was recuperating after a surgical abortion less than a half-hour earlier, and the numbness around her midsection was beginning to subside. She said she would have preferred a medication abortion but was just past the 10-week limit.
"The cramping is going down a little bit. It's slowly, slowly going down," she said, cheerful despite the discomfort. "I wouldn't recommend it, though, to nobody."
Her son, a 19-year-old college student, accompanied her to the clinic from their home in the south suburbs. Earlier, when she had offered him a cup of coffee or some breakfast, he declined, deciding that because she had to fast before the procedure, he would too. He told her he'd wait and they'd have lunch together after it's over. She's also raising a rambunctious 3-year-old daughter.
A chronic medical condition had been ailing her recently, and she was preparing to have an operation to treat it. For some 18 years she'd intermittently been on the injectable birth control Depo-Provera, but said she was recently taken off the contraceptive while on medication related to her health problems. That was when she conceived.
She said she feared having that operation while pregnant but was also scared to delay it.
"That's why I came here today," said the woman, who asked not to be named, "so I can get the abortion and have my surgery and get my health together first and take care of myself. ... I've got to see my other kids grow up."
She plans to have that operation, which is typically covered by Medicaid, as soon as possible. To her, both medical procedures are an equally appropriate use of public funding.
"A lot of people don't have finances to come to the doctor. There's a lot of stuff going on in the world," she said. "It helps people that use it, that can't afford it, that (are) in bad situations."
She said she's pursuing degrees in business management and computer technology, hoping one day to start a cleaning business.
The hundreds of dollars she saved on the abortion will help with utility bills and rent, she said.
"You never know what somebody's going through," she said. "It's helpful to people. They shouldn't take it away from people who need it."
Opposition to government-subsidized abortion has deep historical roots in
After the landmark
Then
"A fetus is not a chicken or a tumor or a bad tooth to be pulled out," the late Hyde had told the Tribune in 1977, drawing parallels between abortion and a Nazi concentration camp. "It is a human being. Abortion is the calculated killing of an innocent but inconvenient human being. You know, I have never been able to divorce what happened in Dachau from what is happening in abortion clinics."
The
State governments, however, can choose to expand the circumstances under which the state portion of Medicaid funds abortion.
Thirty-two states now follow the federal standard.
'One less burden'
At the
"It adds more stress to it because you're already dealing with these emotions of this type of decision that you're making," she said. "To know that I've made this decision, this is what's best for me, and now I can't get it because I can't pay for it."
Not everyone who's struggling financially qualifies for Medicaid, and women traveling from other states aren't eligible, so the new law doesn't eliminate all economic barriers to abortion, she added.
Herron recalled a recent morning when a mother and teenage daughter arrived carrying the exact amount in cash they were prepared to pay for the teen's abortion.
The mother no longer had private insurance. They worried the procedure might cost more than the
"She didn't have a dollar more," Herron said.
A staff member ran the last name through a healthcare database and determined she was approved for Medicaid, explaining that the procedure was paid for.
The mom and daughter gasped in disbelief and then both burst into tears at the front desk window, returning home with the money later that day.
It's the kind of scene Herron says she witnesses once or twice a week.
"When they find out that their Medicaid covers it, we've had some get emotional," she said. "They cry, they say thank you, they're very relieved. It's one less burden they have and they're very grateful for that."
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a lawsuit challenging House Bill 40 was pending in front of the
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