Illinois’ housing crisis is leaving Illinoisans out in the cold. The Regional Transit Association (which operates Metra, Chicago Transit Authority, and PACE buses) has rammed itself solidly into a $770 million fiscal wall. Crime is rising in Chicago’s streets as the arrest rate falls further and Cook County, Illinois, continues to be plagued by financial troubles. 

Nevertheless, Cook County politicians are looking to abortion as their number one policy priority.  

In Illinois, any women—whether a resident or from out of state—can get an abortion paid for by the taxpayers. Earlier this year, an “all-trimester” abortion facility opened in Chicago this year, affiliated with Hope Clinic in Granite City, reportedly committing abortions up to 34 weeks.

However, many policymakers across the state argue that the Land of Lincoln’s statewide policy of deregulated and well-supported abortion does not go far enough.

Last week, Cook County—the largest county in Illinois and home to Chicago—earmarked $2 million out of its nearly $10 billion proposed county budget as a grant to the Chicago Abortion Fund, an organization dedicated to helping women pay for and get abortions. “This investment is not just a financial commitment, it’s a moral one,” stated Cook County 6^th District Commissioner Donna Miller during the meeting where the grant was announced.

“[2025 is] the summer we funded 2,750 abortions,” boasted the Chicago Abortion Fund in a recent social media post. But it remains unclear what real help, if any, the organization is offering to women and families, especially those in Illinois. The cost of 2,750 abortions could roughly pay for over 10 million individual diapers.  

In Illinois, pregnancy centers outnumber abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood 3-to-1, offering hope, help, and free resources, that empowers women to choose life—which many women do.  

At the state level, Illinois has put aside a whopping $24 million dollars in next year’s budget towards “reproductive health initiatives.” 

Meanwhile, pro-life pregnancy centers offering free resources like diapers, formula, parenting classes, and other forms of support remain under the state’s microscope and face continued legal attacks, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker seeks to mold Illinois into a “island of reproductive justice.” 

In 2023, Thomas More Society soundly defeated SB 1909, a Pritzker-signed law that redefined constitutionally protected pro-life speech as a “deceptive business practice” and “misinformation.” Shortly after TMS attorneys sued the state in defense of Illinois’s silenced pregnancy centers, U.S. District Court Judge Iain D. Johnson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law, calling it “both stupid and very likely unconstitutional.”  

The final blow to SB 1909 was dealt only a few months later, when Illinois’ pro-abortion Attorney General Kwame Raoul caved and agreed to permanently halt the law’s enforcement.  

Despite this victory in court, Illinois’s pro-life pregnancy centers still face another legal threat on the horizon. SB 1564 is an unconstitutional law that would force pro-life doctors and pregnancy help ministries to either refer for abortion or face devastating fines—intended to shutter their doors and deny women access to free, vital resources and compassionate care. It also would require them to promote abortion and speak about the so-called “benefits of abortion,” in which they don’t believe.  

Pro-life pregnancy centers don’t offer or promote abortions, an inconvenient truth for Illinois’ pro-abortion politicians and their close relationship with the abortion industry.  

It’s clear that Illinois isn’t so much interested in providing women choices, but rather prioritizing abortion at all (and at substantial) costs. Currently, abortion is legal in Illinois up until the point of “viability,” around 24 weeks.  

“Illinois’ attacks on us target the women we serve, our conscience protections and our faith,” recently wrote Judy Cocks in the The News-Gazette.  

Judy is pregnancy center director in northern Illinois and plaintiff in the Thomas More Society legal challenge against SB 1564, Schroeder v. Treto, Jr. “If Illinois truly cares about women and its “pro-choice” principles, it must stop punishing those who offer life-affirming choices and hold accountable those who endanger women’s lives,” she added.  

“We will not be silenced, and we will continue advocating for women who deserve better than a system that profits from their pain.”

SB 1564 is “a nefarious attempt by the abortion industry to protect its abortion business by silencing pro-life physicians and pregnancy resource centers, that, without a profit motive, try to convince pregnant women to choose life for their unborn child—not abortion,” explained Tom Olp, TMS Executive Vice President, who represents Judy and other pro-life advocates and ministries in Schroeder.

Cook County’s $2 million grant to the Chicago Abortion further reveals that Illinois’ priorities lie with funding only one option, abortion—preaching the doctrine of ‘choice’ out of one side of their mouths while actively denying women access to resources offered by pro-life pregnancy centers.