Current State of Choice
"If the U.S. Supreme Court abortion decisions... are ever reversed or modified or the U.S. Constitution is amended to allow protection of the unborn then the former policy of this State to prohibit abortions unless necessary for preservation of the mother's life will be reinstated." (Sec.1 Illinois Abortion Law of 1975)
While you may be aware that the appointments of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Alito and Roberts have moved the Supreme Court more in line with those who wish to severely limit access to reproductive rights, it is also important to know how at risk we are in Illinois to having abortion become illegal and dangerous again.
Right now, there are dozens of state laws that are making their way through state legislatures, each bound for the U.S. Supreme Court, that seek to overturn Roe v. Wade. Justices Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy will have a literal menu of choices from which they can gut Roe and render the term "reproductive health" meaningless for millions of American women. For example, a Louisiana law to make all abortions illegal could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court in the near future.
While we cannot directly control what happens in other states, we can protect the women of Illinois from horrible legal decisions and statutes like the one above. In order to do this, we must use the February 2010 primary elections to replace anti-legal abortion State Representatives and State Senators with pro-choice lawmakers. Period.
While the Illinois Senate is on the verge of being a solidly pro-choice body after a record number of election victories in 2006, the Illinois House is another story. In April 2006, HB 317 would have allowed a pregnant adolescent who is a victim of rape, incest or violence to seek the counsel of a trained professional when considering an abortion. HB 317 was endorsed by over 100 Illinois newspapers, the Illinois Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics and many more medical and professional organizations. Despite this overwhelming support, HB 317 fell five votes short in the Illinois House, putting the health and lives of our young women at risk.
If we do not have enough votes in the Illinois House to protect victims of rape and incest, then we certainly don't have enough votes to remove the above language and declare in Illinois law that no matter what the Supreme Court does to Roe v. Wade, abortion will remain safe and legal in our state!
Personal PAC is the most effective and sure-fire organization we have in Illinois for eliminating the above statute from Illinois law and protecting our teenagers. Over the past 18 years, Personal PAC has proven time and again that it can defeat anti-abortion elected officials and replace them with pro-choice leaders. With its time tested program of identifying by telephone tens of thousands of pro-choice voters in key targeted legislative districts, sending sophisticated direct mail to these pro-choice voters motivating them to vote for pro-choice candidates, and then getting as many voters to the polls as possible on election day, Personal PAC has won the tough political battles in each election cycle.
We have no choice, for the women and teenagers of Illinois, but to make certain Personal PAC is successful in 2010 with electing more pro-choice State Representatives and State Senators. And we can't do it without our generous support.
Please make the largest contribution possible to Personal PAC today so that we can make certain the greatest number of pro-choice candidates are elected on February 2, 2010. I trust you agree with us that having Roe hang in the balance with a state law on the books that says abortion will become illegal here is simply not acceptable and must be changed at the very next opportunity.