Roe V Wade: What Happens In Illinois If Ruling Is Overturned

ILLINOIS — A furious battle is shaping up in the United States Senate over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Kavanaugh will be questioned about his position on Roe v Wade and whether he would support overturning the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in the United States.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said there’s every reason to believe Kavanaugh would overturn Roe, and President Donald Trump has said in the past that he will only appoint pro-life judges to the bench, giving pro-choice Americans every right to worry.

If the ruling were to be overturned, abortion regulations would vary by state.

Information analyzed by Axios shows the outcome in Illinois is, frankly, unknown. There is no state law or Illinois Supreme Court ruling on abortion, and both the governor and state legislature seem to have mixed feelings on the topic.

In September, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill allowing state health insurance and Medicaid to cover abortions under certain circumstances — a move that drew fire from some conservatives, including Cardinal Blase Cupich, who felt Rauner broke a promise to veto the legislation. The Chicago Sun-Times reacted to the news by running a photo of the governor with the headline "Benedict Rauner."

The action also led, in part, to the magazine National Review declaring Rauner the worst Republican governor in America. The article also said the abortion legislation "may be America's most radical abortion-funding law." Rauner, who is seeking re-election against Democrat and fellow billionaire J.B. Pritzker, was named to a list of the 10 least-popular governors in the country.

According to Axios, 17 states have either laws or court rulings that protect access to abortion regardless of Roe, four states have laws that would immediately make abortion illegal if Roe is overturned and seven states have pre-Roe abortion restrictions. The remaining 22 states and Washington D.C. have no clear regulations in place.

A new poll from NBC and The Wall Street Journal shows that support for Roe v Wade has hit an all-time high. According to the poll, 88 percent of Democrats, 76 percent of independent and 52 percent of Republicans support the ruling.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he expects confirmation hearings for Kavanaugh to begin in late August or early September and for Kavanaugh to be confirmed by Oct. 1.

Abortion isn’t the only issue that has Republicans and Democrats sparring over Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Democrats are demanding access to paperwork from Kavanaugh's tenure as staff secretary in Bush's White House, on the 2000 election presidential recount and on special counsel Kenneth Starr's probe of President Bill Clinton. The tally could stretch at least 1 million pages. Democratic lawmakers are pushing for more information before meeting one-on-one with Kavanaugh.

And with a thin majority in the Senate and the absence of John McCain, Republicans can’t afford to lose even a single member of the caucus if all Democrats vote against him. The votes of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, both pro-choice Republicans, will be closely watched as the two senators, along with McCain, cast the nay votes that prevented the repeal of Obamacare.

Reporting from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Image: Pro-life activists try to block the signs of pro-choice activists in front of the the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2018 March for Life January 19, 2018 in Washington, DC. Activists gathered in the nation's capital for the annual event to mark the anniversary of the Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)