THE DECISION TO ENACT A BAN ON ABORTION IN GEORGIA AND ALABAMA IS HARMFUL TO SURVIVORS EVERYWHERE
Resilience will always advocate for all people to have full agency over their bodies. Recently there has been an attack on the agency of people with uteruses to control their reproductive freedoms. We believe people should have full control over their sexual and reproductive health, without coercion, misinformation, inaccessibility, or fear. Sexual assault survivors are harmed by anti-abortion legislation. Protecting survivors’ access to safe, decriminalized abortion care services is a necessary and critical healthcare option. We believe there is no world where it is possible to be survivor-centered and deny survivors reproductive choice or where it is possible to protect the consent and autonomy of all individuals and criminalize abortion care services. Being forced to carry a pregnancy from rape to term is a form of torture and should be condemned. Both individuals and entire communities are impacted when choice and self-determination over peoples own bodies are taken away
In Georgia on May 7, 2019, Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed a six-week abortion ban into law. The law bans abortions when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which often occurs around six weeks into pregnancy and before many even realize they’re pregnant. Georgia is the fourth state to enact a six-week abortion ban, after Kentucky, Mississippi, and Ohio.
In another decision on May 14, 2019, the Alabama Senate voted to pass the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country, which bans abortions at all phases. The bill’s only exception is for grave risk to the mother’s life and does not include exceptions for victims of rape or incest. If signed into law, doctors could face up to 99 years in prison for providing an abortion. The bill already passed in the Alabama House, and Governor Kay Ivey is expected to sign it into law.
We URGE Illinois lawmakers to preserve access to reproductive health care NOW. CALL YOUR ILLINOIS REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT HB 2495, THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ACT, which would establish the fundamental right to reproductive health—including the right to have an abortion—and regulate abortion like any other form of health care. The bill was recently re-referred to the Rules Committee in the Illinois House of Representatives were it has stalled.
MEMBERS OF THE ILLINOIS HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE:
Chairperson Gregory Harris (D): (773) 348-3434
Member Dan Brady (R): (309) 662-1100
Member Tom Demmer (R): (815) 561-3690
Member Natalie A. Manley (D): (815) 725-2741
Member Arthur Turner (D): (773) 277-4700
CALL THESE ILLINOIS REPRESENTATIVES:
Majority Leader Jehan Gordon-Booth (D): (309) 681-1992
Conference Chair Kathleen Willis (D): (708) 562-6970
Statement by Sarah Layden, Resilience Director of Programs and Public Policy. For more information on this and other policy positions, contact Sarah at slayden@ourresilience.org.
Resilience is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to the healing and empowerment of survivors of sexual violence. Through programs, outreach, and support, Resilience strives for a world free of sexual violence for everyone. Learn more at ourresilience.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn @ResilienceChi.
Abortion, Alabama, Georgia, Public Policy, Reproductive Health Act