CHICAGO _ The young woman didn't know how she could afford to keep the pregnancy she hadn't anticipated or prepared for as she neared the end of her first trimester.
Recently unemployed and barely getting by, she also wasn't sure how to come up with the money for an abortion, the choice she deemed right given her tight finances and life circumstances.
The 24-year-old with red highlights woven in a long braid contemplated selling her television or one of the few other items in her one-bedroom apartment on Chicago's South Side. She considered borrowing cash from family or friends but cringed at the imposition, which would likely require an explanation delving into her personal life and privacy.
"I don't have any help," she said, awaiting her appointment on a recent weekday at the Planned Parenthood of Illinois Near North Health Center in the Gold Coast neighborhood. "That's why I'm making the decision I am now."
The patient was surprised and relieved to learn state Medicaid would cover the cost of the roughly $500 procedure, the result of a controversial Illinois law that expanded taxpayer-subsidized abortions and went into effect Jan. 1.
"I didn't know what I was going to do," she said, asking to remain anonymous. "I'm thankful I was able to use the medical card because I don't have the money right now."
Even in a state considered a reproductive rights haven within the more restrictive Midwest, debate over House Bill 40 divided Illinois _ just one battle in a decadeslong war over public funding for abortion that continues here and nationwide.
State officials had projected the cost at roughly $1.8 million annually, though no one could predict how many women would use the new law, which provides coverage for abortion for state employees and Illinois residents approved for Medicaid.
While it's too soon to tally the annual cost or participation, women who've received assistance under the new law said its impact has been enormous.
Supporters urged its passage by donning red robes and white bonnets in a succession of "The Handmaid's Tale" protests, a nod to the dystopian novel and TV series. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner outraged his party's conservative base by signing the legislation in September. Then in the March primary he narrowly defeated challenger Jeanne Ives, a state lawmaker whose televised campaign ad featured a young woman thanking the governor "for making all Illinois families pay for my abortions."
Anti-abortion organizations along with some Republican lawmakers sued to block the measure and, after a judge dismissed their case, appealed to the Illinois State Supreme Court in February. The suit is pending.
"The fact that the government is using taxpayer money to fund abortion is reprehensible to me," said Tim Moore, president of Springfield Right to Life, one of the plaintiffs. "I'm subsidizing an immoral act. I'm subsidizing the culture of death. The government, which is supposed to protect life, is willfully taking part in the slaughter of innocents."
The young woman wasn't aware of the new law until she called to schedule the procedure a few days prior.
For her and other low-income patients in the crowded clinic waiting room, the expanded coverage meant access to an abortion despite their economic constraints.
"Everybody doesn't have the same privileges," she said.
