Macon Reporter

On May 9, Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) released a statement following the Supreme Court's leaked draft opinion on Roe vs. Wade. Caulkins seemed more concerned about the leak itself instead of the impact the ruling would have on women.

“This is what desperation looks like,” Caulkins (R-Decatur) said. “The Supreme Court leak on the draft of the anticipated Roe v. Wade ruling hasn’t even been proven authentic, and already Governor Pritzker and fellow Democrats are histrionic, all while ignoring the important issue of the unethical and unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion. I have no doubt there was political motivation behind the leak and I have every confidence that Chief Justice Roberts will get to the bottom of it.”

On May 3, the court confirmed the draft was authentic.

According to The New York Times, if the court were to officially overturn the historic decision, laws regarding abortion would be the responsibility of the states. States with “trigger laws” already on the books would make abortion illegal immediately.

On May 2, Politico reported on the leaked draft opinion of a decision, written by Justice Samuel Alito, calling for the abolition of a woman's right to abortion. 

Alito wrote, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

On May 12,  Gov. J.B. Pritzker urged the U.S. Senate – who was then about to vote on legislation making abortion legal – to trust women and allow them to make their own healthcare choices.

“Women are under siege,” Pritzker said, according to ABC 7 Chicago. “Basic rights to privacy, to healthcare, to the rights of women to control their bodies, are about to be stripped away. The world is watching. Here in Illinois, we trust women. To the U.S. Senate, we say, ‘Be like Illinois.’”

The World Health Organization wrote that without access to safe and affordable abortions, women's lives would be put at risk.

On May 13, NPR wrote that Illinois is preparing for an influx of women seeking abortions. 

“According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the numbers have been on the rise since 2011 when slightly more than 3,000 out-of-state patients received abortions in Illinois. By 2020, the number was 9,686 - almost 20% of the total number of abortions performed in the state that year.”