Today, on the 46th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, recognizing a woman’s constitutional right to make fundamental decisions about reproductive health care and abortion care, Governor JB Pritzker signed an executive order highlighting the importance of protecting this decision-making autonomy for all women in Illinois.
The following can be attributed to Colleen K. Connell, executive director of the ACLU of Illinois:
“We applaud the new Governor for taking this early, critical opportunity to recognize that women in Illinois – including women who are state employees and women who get health coverage through Medicare – must be able to access abortion care. Illinois, because of the advocacy of the ACLU and its allies, long has been recognized for having fewer restrictions on fundamental care on women seeking abortion than those states which surround us in the Midwest.
On this day, this is not enough. We must take additional steps to improve, reform and modernize our laws in this important area – so that those laws are consistent with the medical reality of women today, not the ideology of politicians of the past. We look forward to working with Governor Pritzker and the Illinois General Assembly to explore new ways to ensure that all women in Illinois have the capacity to make the promise of Roe a reality.”
