SE Illinois News

State Rep. Patrick Windhorst recently marked the anniversary of the reversal of Roe vs Wade.

Windhorst shared his thoughts on the Supreme Court decision in a June 24 Facebook post.

"Today marks the one-year anniversary of a great victory for the right to life – the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs," Windhorst said on Facebook. "That decision corrected an historic wrong by reversing the erroneously-decided cases, Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The Dobbs decision doesn't ban abortion, but it does allow states to regulate the practice. I look forward to the day when our whole country will provide legal protections for life in the womb."

NPR reported June 23 that Illinois has become a “Midwestern safe haven” and has welcomed an influx of women seeking abortions.

The state passed a variety of bills to protect individuals seeking abortions, according to NPR. One of those bills that awaits Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature doesn’t allow law enforcement to share automated license plate data with other states in regard to people who come to Illinois for abortions.

In January, Windhorst joined his Southern Illinois Republican colleagues in voting against House Bill 1534, according to a release from his office.

The bill required public colleges and universities to provide emergency contraception available via at least one vending machine on campus. It also required abortion care coverage to include medication and required insurance to pay for medications related to abortion, gender-affirming medications and HIV prevention medications.

Windhorst disagreed that minors should be able to take action without their parent's knowledge, according to his release.

"Just last year, Illinois Democrats stripped away the right of parents to know that their minor child is having an abortion by ending parental notification," Windhorst said in the release. "We also voted no on that legislation. Under this bill, minors could receive a surgical abortion from a non-doctor, paid for by the taxpayer, in a clinic that is not held to the same standards as other medical facilities, and their parents never have to know. That is unacceptable and wrong."

Windhorst has spoken out against abortion time and time again, including back in 2019 after Pritzker expanded access to taxpayer-funded abortion, according to a June 2019 release from his office.

Senate Bill 25 says "every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about one’s own reproductive health. [It] provides that every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth, or to have an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise that right."

Windhorst expressed concern about the speed at which the bill was being pushed through the legislative process, his 2019 release reported.

"One week before Session adjourned, House Democrats posted SB 25 one hour prior to a Committee hearing on the bill," Windhorst said in the 2019 release. "To race through a bill of this magnitude in a short seven-day period does not serve the best interests of the taxpayers of Illinois or the unborn babies that this legislation will affect. I am disturbed at the direction our state is heading."