CHICAGO – Governor JB Pritzker announced Thursday Illinois will ignore the Trump Administration's newly-enacted policy to withhold federal funding from abortion providers. Pritzker said they will go around Trump's poicy by providing state taxpayer funds, his office said Thursday.
Referring to President Trump's policy to provide federal funds to clinics that provide health care for women, but do not offer abortion services as a "gag rule," Pritzker's office condemned the action.
"The State of Illinois will forgo Title X funding from the federal government while the gag rule remains in effect. Instead, the Illinois Department of Public Health will provide funding to the current 28 grantees, an estimated $2.4 million in federal funding, if the gag rule remains in place for the duration of the fiscal year," the statement said. More state tax dollars will be used to fund a lawsuit against the "damaging rule," they said.
“President Trump’s gag rule undermines women’s health care and threatens the providers that millions of women and girls rely on, and we will not let that stand in the state of Illinois,” said Governor Pritzker. “Under my administration, Illinois will always stand with women and protect their fundamental right to choose. While I’m committed to bringing as many federal dollars to the state as possible, I refuse to sacrifice our values and allow vital care to lapse. In this state, we trust women to make their own health care decisions and will guarantee access to reproductive health care for all of our residents.”
Shortly after the announcement, the Illinois Republican Party responded to Pritzker's fund rejection with strings attached.
“Notwithstanding aggressive obfuscation in the Pritzker administration’s PR surrounding this decision, the truth is really quite clear. In a state struggling financially, Governor Pritzker would rather turn away federal money funding life saving non-abortion related medical care for women and girls because of his unrivaled zeal for forced taxpayer funding of abortions," the IL GOP spokesperson Joe Hackler said in a statement.
"This episode highlights exactly how extreme Illinois is in dealing with abortion. Our state now allows abortion for almost any reason up until the moment of birth and taxpayers who find this unconscionable, must pay for the procedures. Despite this policy being wildly out of step with the public’s views, the Governor is willing to forgo millions of federal money for women’s health and defy a court ruling in order to preserve it.”
Title X provides a holistic portfolio of critical preventive health services, including HIV prevention and testing, breast and cervical cancer screening and treatment, and reproductive health care for thousands of low-income, uninsured and underinsured Illinois residents and families each year. It is estimated in Illinois that nearly 773,000 women of reproductive age are in need of publicly supported contraceptive services and supplies.
