Good morning, Chicago.
Citing a “financial shortfall,” Planned Parenthood of Illinois announced yesterday — on the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade — that it will be closing four clinics across the state, including one on Chicago’s South Side.
The health center shutdowns come as Illinois is already grappling with a surge in patients traveling here from other states for abortion care after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision Roe v. Wade in June 2022, ending federal abortion rights.
The number of abortion seekers coming to Illinois — long known as a haven for reproductive health access nationwide — has skyrocketed over the past few years. Illinois clinicians provided more abortions for out-of-state patients than any other state in the nation in 2023, the first full year without Roe, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
Read the full story from the Tribune’s Angie Leventis Lourgos.
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160 national security staffers are sent home as the White House aligns its team to Trump’s agenda
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser on Wednesday sidelined about 160 National Security Council aides, sending them home while the administration reviews staffing and tries to align it with Trump’s agenda.
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Former Valparaiso University President Mark Heckler passes a medal to newly inaugurated President Jose Padilla on Oct. 30, 2021. (Kyle Telechan for the Post-Tribune)
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His announcement comes three months after the Faculty Senate took a majority vote of no-confidence in Padilla. It was forwarded to the university’s Board of Directors as their October meeting began; the board issued a statement at the time saying it fully supported Padilla.
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Hard Rock Cafe will close in River North
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