Without You, We Lose

Two critical pieces of legislation in Springfield are under fierce attack by right-wingers and we cannot let them get away with robbing women of their basic human rights.

The first is the Reproductive Health Act (HB 2495) and the second is repeal of Illinois’ forced Teen Endangerment Law (SB 1594) which puts the lives of teenagers at risk. Both bills are critical to protecting reproductive health care in the post-Roe era when Donald Trump’s anti-choice Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

Our anti-choice opponents have taken a page out of the Trump bully playbook in the past week. A conglomeration of right-wing groups, some wearing MAGA hats, held an anti-choice rally at the Capitol last Wednesday that consisted mostly of people bused in from churches with many very young children among the crowd. Anti-choice activists roamed legislative offices, treating staff abusively. Senator Melinda Bush, Senate sponsor of the Reproductive Health Act, was assigned police protection.

Not to be outdone, the Illinois Family Institute (IFI) then posted an ugly and profoundly offensive article online comparing Democrats to Nazis and Planned Parenthood to the Holocaust. The Jewish Caucus and other organizations issued press statements condemning the post, after which State Representative Kelly Cassidy, sponsor of the House Reproductive Health Act, was called a “Lesbian Feticidal Maniac” in yet another post. The IFI lobbyist since 2013, Frank Bass, resigned his position out of disgust for these actions.

This past weekend, the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese, jumped on the right-wing bandwagon by distributing anti-choice propaganda and a letter from Cardinal Cupich to area churches imploring his flock to protect innocent children from HB 2495 and SB 1594, stating “As citizens of a state and people of faith who care about the common good, I urge you to join me and my brother bishops in an effort to defeat this radical departure from current law and practice in our state.” Legislators were called out by name in their Churches.

Asserting moral authority to guard “the common good” by the very same institution that has perpetuated and covered up a mountain of sexual abuse claims over many decades takes chutzpah. Rank hypocrisy doesn’t even come close to touching this one. Some have speculated that this unprecedented ramping up of anti-choice activity by the Archdiocese is a concerted effort to change the subject in the Church pews from child sexual abuse to anti-abortion lies. Just a few hours ago, Cupich and six other Bishops came to Springfield to rail against the bills, but refused to answer reporters’ questions about last week’s new list of 400+ Illinois child sexual abuse claims.

There is no doubt that that Personal PAC must respond with an enormously effective and far reaching strategy to get these critical bills passed just like we did for HB 40.  We’re assembling the necessary budget for social media, direct mail, phone program, newspaper ads and whatever it takes to counter our opponents and get the General Assembly on board in the next few weeks.  And we can’t do it without you!  Not only must you contact your State Representative to support HB 2495 TODAY, but we desperately need your generous financial support to get the job done.

What is at stake if we don’t pass HB 2495? When Roe is overturned, the women of Illinois will be subject to the following laws that have been enjoined (stopped) because of Roe since the 1970s:

• Spousal consent for married women to get an abortion
• Women begging multiple doctors for an abortion like it was pre-Roe
• Restrictions on birth control
• 24 hour waiting periods only for abortion and no other medical procedure
• Doctors being forced read non-medical anti-choice propaganda to every woman seeking an abortion
• Forcing all abortions to be performed in expensive hospital settings
• Anti-choice groups being able to gain access to medical records of women who have had an abortion
• IVF and certain prenatal testing banned
• Private insurance companies freely paying for male sexual enhancement procedures and drugs, but not birth control and abortion
• The future of HB 40

We simply can’t lose this fight in Illinois to Donald Trump and his anti-abortion bullies. When Trump said, “There has to be some form of punishment” for a woman who has an abortion, he meant it.

Always in choice (no exceptions, ever!),