Illinois may expand abortion rights as other states restrict
The Illinois House voted to bolster the right to abortion on Tuesday as Democratic-led states respond to restrictions placed by some Republican-led states that conservatives hope will lead the U.S. Supreme Court to review the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion.
The Illinois House voted 64-50 on Rep. Kelly Cassidy’s Reproductive Health Act , which would rescind prohibitions on some late-term abortions and 45-year-old restraints such as criminal penalties for doctors performing abortions, all measures whose enforcement has been prohibited by court orders.
Outnumbered Republicans denounced the plan, contending it so loosens definitions of fetal viability and doctors’ responsibility in determining the medical need for an abortion that it broadly expands late-term terminations that are not medically necessary....