The below statement can be attributed to Colleen Connell, Executive Director, ACLU of Illinois:

“Images showing that Chicago Police officers responded with excessive violence and chemical agents to protesters who gathered in Grant Park last evening demands public accountability and transparency. Batons, physical force, and chemical sprays were used indiscriminately – against everyone, including those who wished to express their opposition to a statue at that location, legal observers, and journalists reporting from the scene. This type of violence is the very reason that thousands in Chicago – and millions across the country – have taken to the streets to protest police violence against Black people. 

The Mayor, CPD leaders and other City officials should provide a full, public accounting about why this level of violence – including the use of chemical agents – was used. And every complaint of excessive force should be fully investigated and officers who abused protestors, legal observers, and journalists should be held to account.  
 
This sort of violence cannot be repeated. More protests will occur this summer – some likely this weekend. The police department must order officers to use restraint and follow rules on use of force. And the City should announce today that it will not use chemicals on crowds going forward.
 
It is most disturbing that police thought violence against protestors, legal observers, and journalists was a measured reaction to protect a statue. As with their response to the protests in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, CPD appears to value property and statues above First Amendment protected activity, including expression of dissent and journalism on issues of public importance. 

We have a suggestion to make this easier – take the statue in question down. The City could take that action today rather than responding to protests concerning the statue with harsh and violent measures.” 
 

After a process that took a number of years, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) recently announced it would move children in its care to a managed care health plan on September 1st. The plan would be responsible for overseeing the provision of health care for these children.  

As the lawyers for children in DCFS, we know this issue matters. Many of the children in DCFS care have complex, multi-faceted medical needs. For foster parents and other providers, coordinating care already is difficult under the current system. Provision of timely care must not be interrupted as part of this transition.  

While we remain concerned about the process and the timing of this move in the midst of a pandemic, the ACLU has pledged to continue to work with DCFS on this serious change for youth in care. Our goal is to assure that the transition is as smooth and safe as possible for all impacted families.

This process would have been worse if it had occurred earlier. Illinois lawmakers passed legislation years ago calling for Illinois to transition people receiving health care through Medicaid into managed care. The push to include foster children as part of that transition began during the administration of Governor Bruce Rauner. Because of their special needs, and because youth in DCFS custody may be living with foster parents who have limited information about their health history and needs, we knew that changing DCFS’ children’s access to healthcare would be most difficult.

That is why we objected to DCFS’ earlier attempts to make this transition – including twice during the fall of 2019 and twice in early 2020. Each time, we asked questions and probed about how foster parents and others would get information about the health care of the child/children for whom they have responsibility, and whether there would be enough healthcare providers in the managed care network so that DCFS youth could receive the medical care they need promptly and reasonably close to where they live.  

After a lot of conversation and intervention by a special master (in our on-going case against DCFS), the deadline for shifting DCFS children into managed care ultimately was set for April 1, 2020. But then, Governor Pritzker and his administration appropriately stepped in of their own accord to delay implementation of the transition due to the COVID-19 outbreak, and to address additional concerns from advocates and experts. 

We have worked with the Department extensively to assure that children in the care of DCFS do not suffer disruptions and terminations of critical health care services as the providers and insurance companies figure out this process. We hope the State is ready to meet that goal, and we will continue to work with DCFS through and after the new September 1, 2020 rollout date to address any problems that arise. 

Now, we must focus on the most critical issues in front of us and make sure that children, as well as their parents and foster parents, are able to access the life-saving health care the children require. Every day until September, we will work the State of Illinois as they prepare to roll out the new plans.

As the rollout date approaches, we encourage parents and foster parents to contact us if they are concerned that the transition to the managed care system will disrupt their child’s necessary medical care, or if they experience any barriers to getting children medical care after September 1st.

If parents are still having issues navigating this new system, you can contact us by email at 
DCFS-MCO@aclu-il.org, or by phone at 312-854-9805.

In early July, the U. S. Supreme Court upheld a Trump Administration rule that allows virtually any employer in the country to claim a religious or moral exemption in order to opt out of having to provide birth control coverage for employees. Every lower court to decide this issue found that the White House did not have authority to issue these harmful rules, which also apply to universities. It’s an extremely disappointing decision that undermines what Congress intended when it adopted the Affordable Care Act a decade ago. Congress meant for birth control to be provided at no cost under most health care plans. That coverage was a game-changer for people across the country. The Supreme Court’s decision creates the potential for a lot of people to lose this critical coverage.

The Trump Administration has been public and bold about its desire to restrict access to reproductive health care across the country. The political agenda it endorses is also behind the attacks we have seen on other reproductive health care, including the attempt to limit abortion care that was at issue in the June Medical Services case that the Supreme Court also recently decided.

In the current circumstances - with COVID-19 continuing to spread across the country and many people suffering the economic consequences - this is the time to expand health care, not find reasons to restrict it. And we know by looking at the statistics that this decision will disproportionately affect low wage workers and people of color. In Illinois, we do have a state law that still requires coverage under some plans. But there are still groups of people who stand to lose coverage as a result of this decision in this State. Unfortunately, those are the people who are already struggling to make ends meet.

This is why we recently held an emergency virtual town hall on the issue – you can watch that town hall in full here.

Religious freedom should not be used as a license to discriminate. Someone’s ability to decide what birth control to use and access it should not depend on their boss’s religious beliefs. The ACLU will continue to fight in the courts to ensure people have access to essential birth control in Illinois and beyond.