CHICAGO - Ofelia Casillas, an award winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune, has joined the staff of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois to assist the organization in communicating with its many and diverse audiences. Beginning this week, Mrs. Casillas is the Deputy Director of Communications and Foundation Relations. In her new position, she will have primary responsibility for the organization's on-going interactions with several prominent Illinois-based (as well as national) foundations which contribute substantially to the work of the ACLU in Illinois. In addition, Mrs. Casillas will assist in the overall communications' efforts that support the advocacy of the ACLU throughout Illinois on behalf of its clients, its principles and policies and the Constitution.

"We are fortunate that an individual of Ofelia's experience and talents agreed to join our staff," said Edwin C. Yohnka, Director of Communications and Public Policy at the ACLU of Illinois. "Her background and expertise on many of our issues of focus will enable us to enhance our communications with key foundation partners, with our members and supporters, with members of the media and with the general public."

Ofelia Casillas joined the Tribune in 2001 and specialized in covering child welfare, juvenile justice and community social issues. In that work, she established an on-going dialogue with many of the experts in the state concerning issues that affect some of Illinois' most vulnerable populations. Her reporting - about children in the juvenile justice system or in the care of the Department of Children and Family Services - demonstrated a command of the facts and circumstances faced by many young people caught up in those bureaucracies, but also a deep understanding of the nuance and complexity that must be understood in order to reform these vast, impersonal systems. In 2003, she was awarded the Tribune's Edward Scott Beck Award for outstanding professional performance because of the excellence of her work.

"Ofelia knows our issues and she knows the people whose lives are improved by our work," added Yohnka. "She is an invaluable addition to the staff."

Too often, reproductive issues are discussed only in sound bites and talking points, on posters and in slogans. The ACLU of Illinois is working to change that.

Over 10 days in July and August, we will be traveling the state, listening to women, men, young people and doctors throughout Illinois as they share stories about the barriers they face in accessing and providing reproductive health care and information. As we travel through 13 Illinois cities and towns over the course of 10 days, we will learn more about the challenges everyday people face in filling prescriptions for birth control, in finding doctors who will provide needed services or perform abortions, in dealing with Medicaid funding or in receiving comprehensive, age-appropriate sexual health education in public schools.

Our goal is nothing less than to put a human face on the issues and challenges of access to reproductive health services and information in the State of Illinois.

You are invited to join us on the road - You can follow the journey at http://acluroadtrip.org, on Facebook and on Twitter. We'll be holding public listening events in eight cities across the state:

Do you have a story to tell about reproductive health in Illinois? We're listening. Email us at stories@aclu-il.org or visit action.aclu.org/rhstories.

Emily Bazelon has written a fascinating account in the latest New York Times Magazine of the challenges (and successes) in ensuring that women in need of abortion services can access physicians trained to perform abortions and willing to do so. The key paragraph:

Abortion remains the most common surgical procedure for American women; one-third of them will have one by the age of 45. The number performed annually in the U.S. has largely held steady: 1.3 million in 1977 and 1.2 million three decades later. In metropolitan areas, women who want to go to their own doctor for an abortion can ask whether a practice offers abortion when they choose an OB-GYN or family physician. But in 87 percent of the counties in the U.S., where a third of women live, there is no known abortion provider.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, Illinois' situation mirrors that of the nation as a whole. As of 2005, 92% of Illinois counties have no abortion provider, and 34% of Illinois women live in these counties.

It is mind-boggling that a health care service so many women need, and depend on, can be so difficult to access. That one of the reasons we're going on this Road Trip - to learn more about the obstacles faced by Illinoisans as they try to get the reproductive health care that they need, how they overcome those challenges and how we can all help ensure that every woman is able to make her own personal decisions about when and whether to have a child.

crossposted at acluroadtrip.org