Three Pro-Choice Women Running for Open Congressional Seats in Illinois Lay Out What Election Day Means for Women’s Reproductive Rights
Two weeks before Primary Election Day, three pro-choice women running for open Congressional Seats in Illinois made a final plea with voters about what’s at stake in this election.
Jacqui Collins (candidate for IL-01), Delia Ramirez (candidate for IL-03), and Litesa Wallace (candidate for IL-17) joined together in Federal Plaza to warn that our country can’t risk sending candidates to Congress who will allow Republicans to strip away a woman’s basic human right to make her own healthcare decisions about her body.
“No politician, no government, and no man has the right to tell a woman what she can and cannot do to protect her body,” State Senator Jacqui Collins said.
“This election will now determine whether women have the right to make her own healthcare decisions, and with Republicans across the country vowing to criminalize abortion, it is critical that we elect Democrats who are on the record and clear about what they will do to protect women.”
Collins committed to codifying Roe into law while simultaneously increasing access to reproductive health care, which means making medical abortions available over the counter, establishing clinics on federal land and tribal land that are not governed by state laws, demanding that Medicaid cover the cost of abortions as well as the travel costs for people who will now be forced to go to other states to seek care.
In the state legislature, state Senator Collins and state Representative Ramirez worked to pass the Illinois Reproductive Health Act, a law that protects a woman’s right to choose no matter what happens at the federal level.
“I believe that those most directly impacted by the issues we face should always be centered in developing the solutions,” State Representative Delia Ramirez said.
“As reproductive rights are attacked by Republicans and the Supreme Court, it is more important than ever that we elect pro-choice women who will unapologetically fight to protect our bodily autonomy. We know personally what is at stake and you can trust us to be uncompromising defenders of reproductive rights in Congress.”
Wallace is running for Congresswoman Cheri Bustos’ open seat in the 17th Congressional District, which runs along the western edge of Illinois, from Wisconsin down to Peoria and Bloomington, and includes the Quad Cities, Galesburg and Rockford, a large portion of which Wallace represented during three terms as a state representative.
“The 17th Congrssional District was won by Donald Trump during the last election and it’s now in danger of being lost to a Republican anti-abortion extremist named Esther Joy King,” Litesa Wallace said.
“I’m running for Congress as a mother, as an abortion rights advocate and as the strongest Democrat in the primary race to see who will take on the anti-abortion extremist in November.
“We’re here, we have a voice, and we’re ready for this fight for reproductive freedom.”
Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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