The legislative chairman of Illinois Right to Life applauds lawmakers who are fighting against taxpayer-funded abortions.
Ralph Rivera said Illinois Right to Life was thankful for the lawmakers who are fighting against HB 40.
"We are thankful for them for standing up and standing up for life and not our tax dollars paying for abortions," Rivera said in an interview with the Prairie State Wire.
Rivera said HB 40 needed 60 votes to pass the House, but it got 62.
"It was very close," he said. "I think there were actually a couple more that could’ve gone with us, but House Bill 40 contained the trigger language removal that says if the U.S. Supreme Court ever changed or modified its ruling, then we’d go back to the old law, which had a ban on abortions."
Rivera said there were several that were concerned about the trigger language going into effect
"For over 35 years, Illinois has had a ban on taxpayer-funded abortions, and now this opened it up to free abortions for those women on Medicaid," Rivera said. "If you look at the numbers of women on Medicaid—let's say there are 600,000 child-bearing aged women. Even if 2 percent every year were to decide to get an abortion that is free, that would be 12,000 abortions a year."
Rivera said it could even be somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 abortions.
"That’s devastating, first for the unborn babies and for the women who are having the abortions," Rivera said. "And then there is the taxpayer funding cost, which could be about $10-30 million."
Rivera said the state Department of Health and Family Services calculates that the average abortion costs about $1,000.
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