With abortion access seeming uncertain under President-elect Donald Trump, potential patients in Illinois and throughout the U.S. are reaching out in higher numbers to sexual and reproductive health care providers for advice and medication.
Calls to Planned Parenthood Illinois surged 15% in the days immediately after the election, with wait times doubling to as much as 20 minutes. Hey Jane, a New York-based health care company that provides sexual telehealth services, reported a 74% increase in medication abortion patients in Illinois the week after the election.
And sales in abortion pills have skyrocketed across the country. Telehealth company Wisp reported a 600% increase in abortion pill orders between Election Day and the following day. In states such as Florida and Texas, where the medication cannot be legally shipped, the company saw a nearly 1000% increase in orders of emergency contraception, or “morning after” pills.
“Providers and patients are justifiably afraid of what the second Trump administration will bring to sexual and reproductive health care,” Planned Parenthood Illinois President and CEO Jennifer Welch told the Sun-Times. “There are a lot of strategies, and I think the most important thing for us right now is for patients to realize that care is still available.”
Though his position on a nationwide abortion ban has wavered, Trump promised not to sign a federal ban during his latest campaign and said that states should decide their own policies.
But Project 2025, a presidential transition plan drafted by Trump allies, aims to curtail access to medication abortion, the most common method to end pregnancies. Trump also has taken credit for appointing the conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, removing the constitutional right to an abortion.
“While the majority of Americans support abortion access and reproductive freedom — as seen in big abortion ballot measure wins in a record number of states — those beliefs were not reflected in all of the results of the 2024 election,” said Hey Jane CEO Kiki Freedman in a statement.
‘It’s something that’s strongly in the mind of our patients’
Even though the Illinois General Assembly has expanded access to abortions and reproductive care in recent years, making Illinois a Midwestern oasis for people seeking care, reproductive health care providers and supporters in Chicago have still fielded an increase in calls from patients across the country expressing heightened fear of setbacks in federal protections to care.
Howard Brown Health, a nonprofit LGBTQ health care and social services provider, sent a message to its community acknowledging that the election results “mean that we will face threats to accessible health care and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community.”
But the organization’s statement continued to say, “Together, we will continue to ensure that the community members that we serve can live extensive, healthy lives so we can fight for a future that we all believe in.”
“We got an unusually high amount of affirmative and emphatic responses to that, so clearly it’s something that’s strongly in the mind of our patients and community members,” O’Kelley told the Sun-Times.
The Chicago Abortion Fund, which helps people access abortion care by providing financial, logistical and emotional support, also has heard from people across the country who were “feeling even more afraid about their options,” the organization’s Deputy Director Qudsiyyah Shariyf said.
“There’s definitely a lot of fear about what the impacts of the presidential election will have. And we’re really digging into our commitment to support people, our neighbors near and far that especially are relying on Illinois in this moment,” Shariyf said.
What Trump’s term could mean for Illinois
Despite Illinois’ abortion rights protections, a Trump presidency with anti-choice policies could have several effects on the state.
Sarah Garza Resnick, CEO of Personal PAC, a pro-choice political action committee, outlined multiple ways a Trump presidency could “greatly impact” reproductive health care in Illinois despite the state’s legal protections.
That includes removing FDA approval of abortion medications such as mifepristone, holding back federal funding for family planning services and women’s health care, and launching “bogus investigations” into whether Illinois is violating the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal funds from being used for abortion except in certain cases.
“I don’t think any of us know what he is actually going to do,” Garza Resnick said. “…The authors of Project 2025 … and the anti-choice movement have been very clear of their intentions, which is to ban abortion nationwide. And if they do that, there is no Illinois law that can protect Illinoisans from a legal right to have an abortion.”
Garza Resnick predicts a nationwide ban on abortions would cause a trickle-down effect on overall women’s health.
“It has devastating impacts on us,” she said. “What would start to happen is the tragedies we’ve seen unfold in other states — doctors are not clear about what they can provide, hospitals do not want to deal with being prosecuted and that is leading women to die.”
In case abortion access is rolled back nationwide or in neighboring states, some local organizations, such as Howard Brown Health, are working to build solidarity so they can “respond in a unified force,” O’Kelley said.
The Chicago Abortion Fund has been bolstering its operations since the Supreme Court ruling two years ago. This year, it continued to grow its capacity to support patients, it increased its bilingual services, and enhanced its development team “so that we can continue to sound the alarm about the abortion access crisis,” Shariyf said.
“It’s a little early to know exactly what’s going to happen, so the best thing we can do is turn to our community members, stand in solidarity with each other, build resources, and stand by each other until we have a better sense of what this means for us and how we need to respond,” O’Kelley said.
Welch also noted that Planned Parenthood Illinois’ staff, supporters and patients who are trans or gender non-conforming are “understandably frightened,” and the organization’s message to its community is that “our doors are open.”
“We know that the new administration is going to be hostile to sexual reproductive care,” she said. “And people need to know that it is safe and they will get compassionate care at Planned Parenthood Illinois, and we are here for them regardless of their ZIP code.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.