July 15, 2022

Duckworth in Metro East Healthcare Meeting: We Need to Protect Abortion Patients

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) yesterday joined a call with leadership of the Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion provider in the Metro East, as well as Granite City Mayor Michael Parkinson and Granite City Police Chief Mike Nordstrom to discuss security and compassionate care at the facility. With Roe now overturned and Illinois continuing to serve as a beacon for thousands of Americans traveling for abortions, Duckworth and the group discussed the now-intensified need to protect the privacy, emotional wellbeing and physical safety of the clinic’s influx of patients, and how the Senator will continue to support the clinic’s work from the federal level. Hope Clinic’s Director, Erin King, and co-owner, Julie Burkhart, spoke with Senator on yesterday’s call.

“The work of Hope Clinic has been critically important for years—but with the Supreme Court taking away Americans’ constitutional rights for one of the first times in our nation’s history and our neighboring states banning abortion, the importance of this clinic, and the work they do, will only continue to grow,” Duckworth said. “And while I’m proud that Illinois has some of the strongest protections for women’s health in the country, I’m troubled these protections could be at risk as well.  I refuse to let my daughters grow up in a world with fewer rights than I had, and I won’t stop working to codify Roe v. Wade into law and ensure reproductive freedoms are protected for all women.”

Duckworth has made protecting and expanding access to essential women’s healthcare a top priority. In May, she visited Hope Clinic and met with Director King and other staff to share her support for ensuring Americans everywhere can access safe and necessary healthcare. Weeks later, she helped introduce a resolution opposing the criminalization of the full range of reproductive and sexual healthcare, including abortion, gender-affirming care and contraceptive care. The resolution also disapproves of the criminalization of pregnancy outcomes.

In May, she voted for the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), legislation that would help protect women’s constitutional right to choose, which was ultimately blocked by Senate Republicans. In a speech on the Senate floor she shared her support of Americans’ reproductive rights and urged her colleagues to pass the WHPA. Additionally, Duckworth is the lead sponsor of the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Healthcare (EACH) Act, which would end the Hyde Amendment and lift unjust abortion coverage restrictions for those who depend on Medicaid and other government-sponsored plans.

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