Women’s rights take major step forward in Illinois

Recently, Palmer Report pointed out how abortion rights are striking back in some state legislatures, even as other lawmakers are tripping over themselves in a race to pass draconian measures that, they hope, will get Roe v. Wade overturned. The progress continued late last night when the Illinois State Senate passed a law called the Reproductive Health Act, which treats abortion โlike every other medical procedure,โ according to state Sen. Melinda Bush, who sponsored the bill.
The bill, which passed 34-20 and is expected to be signed into law by Governor J.B. Pritzker, establishes a womanโs โfundamental rightโ to have an abortion while clarifying that a โfertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have independent rights.โ The new law will repeal decades-old abortion legislation that requires spousal consent, waiting periods, criminal penalties for abortion providers, and restrictions on abortion facilities, according to the Chicago Tribune. Once passed, the law will make Illinois โthe most progressive in the nation for reproductive healthcare,โ according to Pritzker.
Some women who observed last nightโs vote from the gallery were dressed as handmaids from Margaret Atwoodโs โThe Handmaidโs Tale.โ If you have read the book or seen the Hulu series, you are no doubt familiar with how it hauntingly portrays an alternative future in which the United States has become Gilead, an extremely misogynistic dystopia in which women are valued only insofar as they can get pregnant and give birth. In a Newsweek interview also published yesterday, Ann Dowd, the actress who plays Aunt Lydia, one of Gileadโs cruelest inhabitants, broke character to lash out against the legislators behind the recent wave of restrictive anti-abortion laws. โItโs disgusting to me,โ Dowd said. โGo to church and ask for forgiveness: Thatโs my advice to all of you who are dying to shut down womenโs rights.โ
After the vote, Sen. Bush proclaimed, โWeโre not going back to coat hangers, weโre not going back to dying. Weโre not going back. And I am proud to say Illinois is a beacon. For womenโs rights, for human rights.โ While some legislators do want to turn this country back, many others are working hard to make sure the United States bears no resemblance to Gilead but respects the difficult decisions women may need to make about their own bodies.

Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month