Evanston news delivered free to your inbox!
Editor’s note: The Evanston RoundTable team will be reporting reaction to this decision all day and updating this story. Please sent us your reaction at susy@evanstonroundtable.com.
Reactions poured in Friday, after the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had been in effect for almost 50 years.
The decision effectively eliminates the constitutional right for a woman to have an abortion and leaves the legality up to the states.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote the majority opinion, which read: “We hold that Roe and Casey [a 1992 case upholding Roe] must be overruled.
“The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision. Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. … Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division.”
Groups planned to gather and protests tonight, according to Block Club Chicago: “Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights will hold a protest 5 p.m. Friday at Federal Plaza, 219 S. Dearborn St. A coalition of local groups — including ACLU of Illinois, the Chicago Abortion Fund and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action — will also host a rally and march starting 5:30 p.m. at Federal Plaza.”
Below are reactions from federal officials, including the president and our Senate and Congressional representatives, as well as state and local leaders.
Local people and officials
Teague Sieja, a recent ETHS graduate, said the overturning of Roe v. Wade feels fictional, like something out of the Maraget Atwood’s dystopian novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” [It sends the message that legally controlling women’s reproductive freedom is morally and politically wrong.]
“It just feels so fake like this couldn’t possibly be where we are now in this day and age.” Sieja said learned about the decision this morning, while scrolling through Instagram. Sieja said she first brushed her mother off, saying she felt fine, but then, she said, “I just burst into tears. She gave me a hug and was trying to reassure me.”
Yet, Sieja said her mother never had to worry about her reproductive rights as Sieja will. Sieja is to college this fall in California but some of her friends are moving to southern, conservative states, and have said they’re afraid.
“I don’t even know if I could move to a state where my rights as a woman aren’t being protected,” said Sieja. “It’s just disgusting to me that we’ve gone back so many for so many steps as a country.”
Rev. Dr. Michael Nabors, leader pastor of Second Baptist Church, said that when the news of the ruling broke this morning, he wasn’t stunned. He knew it would be a matter of time until the Supreme Court announcement. But, he was still disappointed.
“After 50 years, such an incredible and important piece of judicial process has been overturned. And when we think about 50 years ago, I think of it not so much as an issue related to abortion, as I do about the issue of women having the right to determine what happens to their own bodies… And that is what has been changed by this really, really conservative group of Supreme Court justices is awful. And and it’s reprehensible.”
Nabors said he’s worried about the effect this will have on access to medically-safe abortions, and the harm it will cause Planned Parenthood, which offers an array of women’s health resources outside of abortion.
“I’m hoping that clergy will be able to gather together in Evanston as we’ve done in the past to protest this movement. And to suggest that, again, it’s not so much a movement of the supreme court against the issue of abortion, as it is setting that Supreme Court up to dictators in the personal lives of its citizens, starting with women.”
Nabors noted that Clarence Thomas, the Black lead justice to write the argument overturning the protection, in the past has had sexual assault misconduct suits occur in the workplace. “It’s absolutely amazing that somebody that has that kind of history, in terms of being disrespectful towards women… would be the one to sign his name, as the author of this latest piece of this latest debacle.”
Evanston Communications Manager Patrick Deignan said in an email: “City staff will not be commenting on this issue,” effectively leaving out the voice of the city’s health department director.
Northwestern student Lunden Mason is a part of the university’s Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educator (SHAPE) club, where she fights for reproductive rights. Mason said she sees progress in small, tangible ways every day, but a decision like this is devastating. “In a couple days, I’ll be back in the mindset of ‘there’s so much work to be done,’ and I’ll probably be more energized than ever, but right now, I’m not feeling that at all,” said Mason. “I’m just really, really sad.”
Mason is home in Ohio for the week, and after hearing the news, she and her mom cried together. “It’s good that she and I were together,” said Mason. “It’s nice to process with another person.”
Mason said some of her family members have had abortions, and she and her mom discussed these women and ways to support them. “The lives they built wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t have reproductive justice,” she said. “It just breaks our heart to think that other women like wouldn’t have that option.”
While Mason said she is fortunate to live in Illinois, she feels for the women in her conservative Ohio hometown, where access to abortions was difficult even before this decision. “I’m really heartbroken for everyone I know here,” she said.
State officials
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker called a special emergency session of the state legislature saying it was to “further enshrine our commitment to reproductive health care rights and protections.”
At a news conference, the governor said: “Privacy rights are being eviscerated right before our very eyes. … If they can take away your ability to control your own body, there’s not much that stops them from making marriage equality illegal and taking away employment protections for your beliefs or your orientation.
“No ifs, ands, or buts about it: we are headed down a dangerous spiral that will erode our democracy.”
Illinois is considered a haven state, where abortion is legal. The expectation is that this change in the law will bring more women to the state for abortion services. Plus, Illinois is also surrounded by two states, Missouri and Kentucky, that passed “trigger” laws, laws restricting or prohibiting abortion that would automatically be reinstated (on various timetables) if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
Illinois is also considered a safe habor state, a place where abortion is legal and the laws welcome others from out-of-state to come here. Experts predict an influx of an estimate 20,000 people will come to Illinois looking for abortion healthcare, said Alicia Hurtado, during a news conference today.
“Illinois must be ready for this influx of care – this is no longer a hypothetical, This is a reality said Hurtado, associate communications specialist for Chicago Abortion Fund, which supports women from all across the country but focuses on low income, women of color, who do not have the funds to obtain abortion services.
State Sen Mike Simmons (D-Chicago), whose district also includes Evanston, said via Twitter: “Stop legislating our bodies. My statement on the horrific decision by a grievously out of touch Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.”
He added in a statement: “I am furious at the colossal injustice that has just been handed down by the nation’s top court. A generation of reproductive rights are being taken away by an oppressive patriarchal, fundamentalist court that is grievously out of touch with the country. The reproductive rights and health care of millions of people — women of all backgrounds, transgender people and nonbinary people — are under attack. Today is a shameful day in our country’s history.”
State Senator Laura Fine (D—Glenview) said via Facebook: “I am angry that the Supreme Court has decided that it is okay to take away a woman’s fundamental right to make decisions about her own body.
“Overturning Roe v. Wade will have devastating consequences for women’s physical and mental health. This will not stop abortion, it will just make it unsafe. Here in Illinois, we trust women and have protected a woman’s right to choose.
“Under Illinois law, women still have access to reproductive health care such as abortions. I will continue to fight to uphold a woman’s right to choose and advocate for reproductive rights as a fundamental right for everyone in this country.”
Federal officials
President Joseph Biden, addressing the nation via television, said: “Today, the U.S. Supreme Court took away the right for a woman to choose. … The health and life of women in this nation are now at risk. …
“I believe Roe v. Wade was a correct decision. … It was a decision on a complex matter… a decision with broad national concensus that most Americans of different faiths found acceptable. … Roe v Wade was [originally] a 7-2 decision.
“The court has done what it has never done before to expressly take away a Constitutional right.”
U.S. Sen Tammy Duckworth (D. IL), wrote on Twitter: “I am outraged and horrified—this outcome is a nightmare that robs women of their right to make their own choices about their healthcare and their bodies, and it paves the way for a nationwide abortion ban that Republicans have been seeking for decades.”
U.S. Sen. Dick Durban (D.-IL.) via Twitter said: “Today’s decision eliminates a federally protected constitutional right that has been the law for nearly half a century. As a result, millions of Americans are waking up in a country where they have fewer rights than their parents and grandparents.”
As the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, Durban set a hearing to look at life after Roe on July 12, the day after the Senate returns from a two-week July 4 recess.
U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D.-IL.) posted a video on Instagram of her walking and carrying a large pink sign that read: “Protect Safe, Legal Abortion.” She said: “I’m on my way to the Supreme Court with a whole crowd of people that is gathering. Members of congress and others, men and women alike, who are saying this decision is completely unacceptable. We trust women, we won’t go back.”
from WordPress https://ift.tt/yE8v62q
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment