Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke is calling for Illinois lawmakers to include attacks against reproductive health centers as an act of terrorism following a car bombing outside a fertility clinic in California.
O’Neill Burke issued a call this week for legislation that would amend the state criminal code to define any act that creates substantial damage to a reproductive health clinic or facility as terrorism.
“This is exactly why I worked to introduce legislation that ensures any such incident in Illinois is treated as the terrorist act that it is, and it’s a shame certain interest groups and legislators worked behind the scenes to put a brick on it,” O’Neill Burke said in a prepared statement.
The bills are pending in the Legislature, and lawmakers are expected to wrap up the session by May 31. The legislation was introduced in February and there hasn’t been any action since, giving them little chance of passing by the end of the month.
The bombing happened Saturday outside the American Reproductive Centers, a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, Calif., and left four people injured. The person whom the FBI believes was responsible died at the scene and left behind writings indicating he was against people continuing to have children, the Associated Press reported.
Across the country, abortion providers in 2023 and 2024 reported at least 12 instances of bomb threats and 30 suspicious packages or hoax devices, according to the National Abortion Federation’s 2024 Violence and Disruption Report.
Planned Parenthood of Illinois had to close its Peoria Health Center for more than a year after it was damaged by a firebombing in January 2023. Cristina Villarreal, chief of external affairs for Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, said the organization supports more protections for patients and providers.
“Addressing access to sexual and reproductive health care through criminal law is complicated, and we appreciate that the conversation is being had,” Villarreal said in a statement. “We are working with the state Legislature and other state officials on creating an environment that is safe, healthy and secure for all.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois does not support the legislation as initially filed, said Ed Yohnka, the director of communications and public policy. One concern is that it could be weaponized against those who protest clinics run by abortion opponents and provide other services to pregnant women.
Yohnka said they have heard from providers, particularly downstate, that they get inconsistent responses from local police when making complaints, especially if a local sheriff or state’s attorney was aligned with an anti-abortion platform when they were seeking office.
“Nothing in this measure would have addressed that, which again as we hear from providers around the state is the more significant thing that really needs to be done in order to protect access to reproductive health care in Illinois,” Yohnka said.
The state’s attorney’s office said opposition centered around an enhanced sentencing penalty for state terrorism charges. But Yvette Loizon, chief of policy for the office, said that was already in place and not part of their bill.
“When a person commits an act of terrorism, when they are committing bombings or some other violent-related offense, to prohibit women from exercising their fundamental freedom to seek reproductive health care … that conduct is so egregious that it’s appropriate to have enhanced sentencing structure that was in place,” Loizon said.
Andrea Gallegos, the executive administrator at Alamo Women’s Clinic in Carbondale, said health clinics providing abortion services have always been targets for vandalism and protests — even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 .
Gallegos said she was not familiar with the legislation Burke was pushing in Springfield, but she believes the harassment that patients receive when they try to access care at their clinic should be considered an act of violence.
“It does feel like the Trump administration doesn’t have our back as abortion providers,” she said. “And I think that it is up to local law enforcement and legislators to be aware and show up and intervene when necessary.”
The clinic opened in Carbondale after Roe v. Wade was overturned, and it hasn’t seen any major safety incidents. But there is a regular group of people who consistently protest the clinic. It serves 300 to 400 patients a month and many are from out of state, Gallegos said.
“There’s always some confusion on how to enforce, what to enforce, where’s the line drawn from the right to free speech to when we, as providers and staff and patients, [have the] right to not be harassed,” Gallegos said.
Carbondale had passed a local ordinance to create a buffer zone between protesters and patients, but it was later repealed following a legal challenge. The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year declined to review a case stemming from the ordinance.