Illinois introduced, “EXpanding Abortion Services Act” {Kelly Cassidy}

Politics and Social Issues
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Illinois Democrats introduce an interesting bill that I hope passes. Then struck down by the Supreme Court together with the Texas, anti-woman abortion restrictions act

On the one hand I can understand that fighting fire with fire can result in burning down the house.
Then again, what’s to be done when we have a ton of Malicious trumpian Maga Know-nothings dedicated to abusing and gang raping our American norms of behavior and governance?

“If folks are policing the bodies of people who are seeking reproductive healthcare in Texas, well, then maybe we should be policing the bodies of the people who are causing those problems here in Illinois,” State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) told NPR Illinois.

Democrat-Sponsored ‘TEXAS Act’ Would Allow $10K Bounties On Sexual Abusers, Those Who Cause Unwanted Pregnancies

Expanding Abortion Services Act {Illinois State Rep. Kelly Cassidy
NPR Illinois | 91.9 UIS | By Hannah Meisel

Published September 14, 2021

… The Texas law is uniquely designed, allowing private citizens the right to bring a civil lawsuit against anyone who performs an abortion, gets an abortion or aids in someone getting an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. Opponents of the law have described the minimum $10,000 in damages up for grabs as a “bounty.”

State Rep. Kelly Cassidy’s proposal instead would instead give Illinoisans the right to seek at least $10,000 in damages against anyone who causes an unwanted pregnancy — even if it resulted from consensual sex — or anyone who commits sexual assault or abuse, including domestic violence. …

… “There’s certainly an element of ‘hold my beer’ to this, obviously,” Cassidy said. “But the truth here is if this is our new normal, if this is the way that conservatives are going to police women’s bodies, and we as a state have — with a great deal of intentionality — have established ourselves as a safe haven, we also…have to figure out a way to manage that.” …

Full article is worth reading.

Also, regarding Representative Cassidy’s legislative record

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For more background on Illinois’s fight to protect woman’s rights.

What the Texas Abortion Law Means for Illinois

Amanda Vinicky | September 7, 2021

State Rep. Anna Moeller, D-Elgin, who is the sponsor of a measure that would expand access to abortions in Illinois (not the above bill), said the law is the result of a decades-long attack on abortion rights.

“The Texas law shows us the full picture of a truly radical attack on reproductive rights, authorizing anti-abortion activists to essentially seek out a bounty on women trying to access the health care that they need and those who are trying to assist them,” she said. …

“If Roe v. Wade goes away — maybe we should start to be honest and say when Roe v. Wade goes away — it’s put back to each state to make its decision about whether to allow abortion in their states, and so what we have in Illinois is the Reproductive Health Act that makes sure a patient can get a safe and legal abortion in our state,” Planned Parenthood Illinois President Jennifer Welch said.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Reproductive Health Act into law in 2019. In addition to codifying the right to abortions and birth control in Illinois, the act takes references to abortions out of Illinois’ criminal code and requires insurers to cover abortions. …

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“Unwanted” by whom?

If I had a daughter and her loser husband got her pregnant, and I don’t want a grandchild from a loser father, the pregnancy is unwanted. - Can I go for two!?! Damages from each! - They were both party to the act.

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[quote=“citizenschallengev4, post:2, topic:8332”]

“The Texas law shows us the full picture of a truly radical attack on reproductive rights, authorizing anti-abortion activists to essentially seek out a bounty on women trying to access the health care that they need and those who are trying to assist them,” she said

Yes, and the next step would be to declare a woman who had a legal abortion in any State or Europe, as having committed a criminal act and still being subject to individual persecution in Texas.

Hello Taliban, Texas has come to join you in Sharia law. “Fatwa” is now legal in Texas.

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Let’s hope it passes. Minorities would be hardest hit as they have the highest rates of unplanned pregnancy and domestic violence. While the sinister White men who are anti-abortion keep doing what they do. :

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The mama. End of story.

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Well I sat down and wrote the Chicago, Illinois State Representative. Ironically, she represents the district adjacent to where I lived till 13, in the Lakeview District (Ph #: LA 5-4723 - mom made sure we had that # and our address memorized near as soon as we learned to walk.)

State Representative Kelly Cassidy
5533 North Broadway, Chicago, Illinois 60640

Honorable Representative Cassidy,

Thank you for your thoughtful Expanding Abortion Services Act. I hope you find many sponsors and follow through on passing the bill. It will serve as a desperately needed, and invaluable, example for how we can constructively confront and push back on the right wing’s religious radicalization and increasing disconnect from actual physical reality.

FYI, Please consider making more use of a fundamental fact that seems ignored these days.

That is, the bigger point of the historical fact (and evolutionary fact) of earlier infanticide, evolved into abortions of those who couldn’t survive or threatened to be damaging to the mother and family.

We humans have been practicing family planning and birth control since before we were humans, and through every epoch and culture that has existed on this planet. It used to be a matter of infanticide. Now we can end the little life before it becomes a person. Let it be.

The mother and family’s lives always morally supersede an unborn potentiality’s right to life. We should make a bigger point of explicitly sharing that message. With both side, most of our own are woefully under informed.

It’s part of the reality of having to survive in difficult times. It is a decision for the mother and her chosen circle, it is always taken seriously, and the expert in the matter is the mother herself and her chosen counselors, she has the true Ethical (godly) Right to make such a choice.

Thank you,

added a small check to underscore my appreciation.

It would be nice if she’s getting letters from everywhere. I hope to have positive things to report in this thread as the wheels of government grind along.

Cheers

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I don’t have an update on Illinois, but check out what happened in Texas

Federal Judge Pauses Strict Texas Law Banning Most Abortions

A sharply worded ruling sided with the Justice Department, which sued to block the measure last month after the Supreme Court declined to intervene.

By Sabrina Tavernise and Katie Benner

Published Oct. 6, 2021Updated Oct. 7, 2021, 12:36 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Wednesday granted the Justice Department’s request to halt enforcement of the recently passed Texas law that bans nearly all abortions in the state while the legal battle over the statute makes its way through the federal courts.

In his 113-page ruling, Robert L. Pitman, a Federal District Court judge in Austin, sided with the Biden administration, which had sued to halt a law that has changed the landscape of the abortionfight and further fueled the national debate over whether abortion will remain legal across the country.

Judge Pitman used sharp language to criticize the law, known as Senate Bill 8, which was drafted to make it difficult to challenge in court by delegating enforcement to private individuals, who can sue anyone who performs abortions or “aids and abets” them.

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