Lieutenant Governor Of Illinois Testifies On How The Dobbs Decision Is Already Harming Individual States | U.S. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois

07.12.22

Throughout a listening to addressing a post-Roe America, Judiciary Committee releases testimony from Juliana Stratton, Lt. Gov. of Illinois

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee launched Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton’s ready testimony throughout as we speak’s listening to entitled “A Publish-Roe America: The Authorized Penalties of the Dobbs Choice.” Stratton is the primary Black girl to function Illinois’s Lieutenant Governor, a place she has held since 2019. Her testimony focuses on the steps that Illinois has taken to guard entry to abortion, the challenges of out-of-state sufferers coming to Illinois to hunt care, and the numerous racial disparities that exist already for abortion entry and maternal mortality.

Key quotes as ready:

“I come earlier than you as we speak as a result of folks all through your complete Midwest are counting on our dedication to guard and protect girls’s rights—specifically the fitting to an abortion.”

“[Illinois is] not simply an oasis of reproductive care, however an island… It seems like disenfranchised but decided sufferers coming from each surrounding state, but additionally from as distant as Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida. It seems like your complete workers in our state’s abortion clinics fielding cellphone requires appointments as a result of the variety of out-of-state sufferers has doubled since Roe V Wade was overturned.”

“[W]e know that inequities are amplified throughout the Black and Latinx communities. A post-Roe America shall be devastating for Black girls, whose maternal mortality price is already two to a few instances larger than that of white girls due to structural racism and misogyny. One research… tasks that with out entry to secure and authorized abortions, that quantity will enhance by over 30 p.c amongst Black girls and practically 20 p.c for Hispanic girls.”

“We face a future rife with useless loss of life, regardless of 61% of People believing abortion must be authorized… Earlier than the threats to Roe V Wade have been absolutely realized, Illinois was proactive, upholding bodily autonomy, and defending the fitting to an abortion. And nonetheless, the overturning of Roe V Wade has despatched us down a darkish, agonizing path.”

“I say this, not simply because the Lt. Governor of Illinois, however because the mom of 4 daughters. My daughters, who now have fewer rights than I had. And primarily based on Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion, it’s seemingly this is probably not the final rights that shall be stripped from future generations.”

Full textual content of Lt. Gov. Stratton’s ready remarks can be found right here.  

Full listening to on the impression of gun violence on kids could be watched reside right here; on Twitter here; and on Fb right here.

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