Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, a Democrat, called for a special session for lawmakers to strengthen abortion rights, anticipating that women from other states would be flocking to Illinois for abortion services.
At a Planned Parenthood clinic in Waukegan, Ill., just miles from the Wisconsin border, a group of about 20 anti-abortion protesters stood with signs and prayed on Saturday.
The clinic was opened in 2020 in anticipation that Roe would be overturned and Wisconsin would ban abortions, said Mary Jane Maharry, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Illinois. “We do have enough staff to meet the needs today and we are working at increasing our staff to meet the anticipated surge of 20,000 to 30,000 additional out-of-state patients per year,” she said.
In Charleston, W. Va., the state’s lone abortion clinic ended all appointments, fearing that an abortion ban from the 19th century was suddenly enforceable again after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
One of the appointments had just been made on Thursday by a 21-year-old pregnant woman in West Virginia who had weighed whether she was ready to have a child and decided that she was not.
On Friday, a clinic employee called to tell the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared her parents would disown her if they knew she was planning to have an abortion, that her appointment would be canceled.
“When I went to bed, I had my appointment and everything was set,” she said, “and then today it’s like pre-1973.”
Reporting was contributed by Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, Aurelien Breeden, Robert Chiarito, Emily Cochrane, Jimmie E. Gates, Carey Gillam, Victoria Kim and Erica Sweeney.
