Abortion in Illinois is legal throughout pregnancy, but restricted post-viability to cases where it is necessary for the life or health of the patient. Laws about abortion dated to the early 1800s in Illinois; the first criminal penalties related to abortion were imposed in 1827, and abortion itself became illegal in 1867. As hospitals set up barriers in the 1950s, the number of therapeutic abortions declined. Following Roe v. Wade in 1973, Illinois passed a number of restrictions on abortion, many of which have subsequently been repealed. Illinois updated its existing abortion laws in June 2019. The state has seen a decline in the number of abortion clinics over the years, going from 58 in 1982 to 47 in 1992 to 24 in 2014, but an increase in abortions.
A 2014 poll of people in Illinois in 2014 found 56% believed that abortion should be legal in all or most cases. That same year, 38,472 abortion procedures took place in the state, 8.2% by out of state residents. Publicly funded abortions for poor women came from a mix of state and federal resources. All state statutes placing some restrictions on abortion were later repealed in June 2019. The 2023 American Values Atlas reported that, in their most recent survey, 68% of Illinoisans said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
History An 1827 Illinois law prohibited the sale of drugs that could induce abortions. The law classed these medications as a "poison". The 1827 law was the first in the nation to impose criminal penalties in connection with abortion before quickening.
Illinois passed a bill in 1867 that made abortion and attempted abortion a criminal offense. Around 1870, Illinois passed another law banning the sale of drugs that could cause induced abortions. The law is notable because it allowed an exception for "the written prescription of some well-known and respectable practicing physician".
The Chicago Times published an undercover exposé on abortion in the city in 1888. One reporter managed to get a referral for an abortion with the head of the Chicago Medical Society.
In 1956, Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago created an anonymous committee to approve all requests for therapeutic abortions. As a result, the number of therapeutic abortions in 1957 was 3, down from 15 the previous year.
The Jane Collective, an underground collective that assisted women in obtaining safe abortions, was founded in Chicago in 1969. The collective trained its members in abortion care and provided more than 11,000 abortions before disbanding in 1973.
The US Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade meant the state could no longer regulate abortion before the viability of the fetus. In 1975, the 79th General Assembly enacted the Illinois Abortion Law, which included a trigger law that provided that if Roe v. Wade was overturned or repealed, "the former policy of this State to prohibit abortions unless necessary for the preservation of the mother's life shall be reinstated."
In 1995, the 89th General Assembly enacted the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, a parental notification law. The Act required physicians to give 48 hours' notice to the parent, grandparent or guardian of a minor seeking an abortion. However, the law was enjoined by the courts for more than two decades.
A 2013 Guttmacher Institute survey found that Illinois' Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) law applied to private doctor offices, in addition to abortion clinics. As of 2013, Illinois began allowing qualified non-physicians to prescribe drugs for medication abortions only.
In 2013, the Illinois Supreme Court recognized a right to abortion in the Illinois state constitution under the due process clause.
In 2017, the 100th General Assembly repealed the trigger law component of the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, but left many of its other provisions intact. In the same act, the General Assembly provided for abortion to be covered under Medicaid and state employee health insurance. The bill was signed into law by pro-choice Republican governor Bruce Rauner.
Until June 12, 2019, under the Illinois Abortion Law of 1975, state law banned abortions after 12 weeks. The state prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28, based on the standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling, not because of legislative action.
State legislators had introduced a bill in February 2019 to make abortion a right and to remove the 12-week ban from the books. In May 2019 the bill's sponsors demanded action to move this bill ahead, after Alabama and Georgia's state governments passed laws all but restricting abortions. On May 31, 2019, Illinois became the eleventh state to pass bills protecting abortion rights in the state in response to anti-abortion legislation being passed elsewhere. The bills, pushed through by the Democratic-controlled House and Senate and known as the Illinois Reproductive Health Act, provided statutory protections for abortions, and rescinded previous legislation that banned some late-term abortions and a 45-year-old law that had made performing such abortions a criminal offense. After the bill passed, Governor Pritzker was on the Illinois Senate floor, hugging and congratulating abortion-rights supporters. The Illinois Reproductive Health Act says that women have the "fundamental right" to access abortion services, and that a "fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights". Pritzker signed the bill into law on June 12, 2019.
In fall 2021, the General Assembly passed a bill to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Governor Pritzker signed it into law on December 17, 2021. Thus, as of June 1, 2022, Illinois does not require a minor to notify a parent or guardian in order to obtain an abortion.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, later in 2022.
Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, Illinois became an abortion access state for people in the South and Midwest impacted by abortion bans in their states, with 30% of abortions going to out of state residents. Abortions in Illinois increased by over 45% in the year following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, primarily due to patients traveling from states with abortion bans. By 2023, Illinois saw more out-of-state abortions than any other state, a 71% increase from 2020 to 2023. As of 2025, nearly 1 in 4 people nationally who crossed state lines to obtain abortions went to Illinois for the procedure, a volume higher than any state in the country.
In 2023, Illinois passed House Bill 4664, protecting access to abortion in the state. It was signed into law by Governor Pritzker on January 13, 2023.
In 2025, Governor Pritzker signed two abortion rights bills passed by the Illinois General Assembly into law; Illinois House Bill 3637, which stipulates that any medication that had U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval prior to 2025 and remains approved by the World Health Organization will remain legally accessible in Illinois even if the FDA revokes approval of the drug, effective until 2034. He also signed Illinois House Bill 3709, which requires Illinois colleges and universities to provide students access to contraception and abortion medications at campus pharmacies and health care centers.
On June 24, 2026, the fourth anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Governor Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act into law, which prevents abortion information from being shared with out-of-state entities, shielding it so abortion-seekers are protected from potential retaliation for receiving legal healthcare in Illinois.
Clinic history
Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by 11, going from 58 in 1982 to 47 in 1992. In 2014, there were 24 abortion clinics in the state. 92% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 40% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic. In 2017, there were 17 Planned Parenthood clinics, 11 of which offered abortion services in a state with a population of 3,003,374 women aged 15–49. Following the announcement in late-May 2019 that the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Missouri would likely close because it was unable to meet new state licensing rules, abortion clinics in Illinois prepared for an influx of new patients by hiring additional staff and increasing their opening hours. Hope Clinic in Granite City was one of the clinics most likely to be impacted because of its location relative to St. Louis, Missouri.
Statistics In the period between 1972 and 1974, the state had an illegal abortion mortality rate per million women aged 15–44 of between 0.1 and 0.9. In 1990, 1,402,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy. In 2014, 56% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal vs. 41% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. In 2017, the state had an infant mortality rate of 6.1 deaths per 1,000 live births. + Number of reported abortions, abortion rate and percentage change in rate by geographic region and state in 1992, 1995 and 1996 Census division and state Number Rate % change 1992–1996199219951996199219951996 East North Central 204,810 185,800 190,050 20.7 18.9 19.3 –7 Illinois 68,420 68,160 69,390 25.4 25.6 26.1 3 Indiana 15,840 14,030 14,850 12 10.6 11.2 –7 Michigan 55,580 49,370 48,780 25.2 22.6 22.3 –11 Ohio 49,520 40,940 42,870 19.5 16.2 17 –13 Wisconsin 15,450 13,300 14,160 13.6 11.6 12.3 –9
+Number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions, by reporting area of residence and occurrence and by percentage of abortions obtained by out-of-state residents, US CDC estimatesLocationResidenceOccurrence% obtained byout-of-state residentsYearRefNo.Rate^Ratio^^No.Rate^Ratio^^Illinois68,42025.41992Illinois68,16025.61995Illinois69,39026.11996 Illinois 33,918 13.1 214 38,472 14.8 243 8.2 2014 Illinois35,23713.722339,85615.52528.52015Illinois33,31113.121638,38215.124912.22016^number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44; ^^number of abortions per 1,000 live births
Abortion financing
Seventeen states including Illinois used their own funds to cover all or most "medically necessary" abortions sought by low-income women under Medicaid, thirteen of which are required by State court orders to do so. In 2010, the state had 371 publicly funded abortions, of which were 237 federally and 134 were state funded.
Criminal prosecution Between 1974 and May 2019, there was a law that said that anyone who performed a late term abortion could be charged criminally with that offense. No one was ever charged with violating that law.
Abortion rights activism
Organizations The Jane Collective, which began as the Abortion Counseling Service of the Chicago Women's Liberation Union, was established by Chicago-area feminists as a way to try to provide local women with safe and affordable illegal abortions during the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to Laura Kaplan who wrote a history of the group, members assisted women in having 11,000 safe abortions. Another estimate put the total abortions assisted by the group as 12,000 between 1969 and 1973.
The Chicago Abortion Fund was established in 1985, which assists low-income people in obtaining abortions. In 1994, Mary Morten became board chair and recruited Toni Bond as CEO. Both women were African American, which at the time was unique among the leadership of pro-choice organizations in Illinois.
Activities