Chicago House Statement on Supreme Court Ruling
June 24, 2022
Contact:
Tyler Hough
(815) 579-0867
CHICAGO, IL — Today, we mourn the devastating news delivered by the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, thereby expressly taking away a fundamental and constitutional right to abortion that has been the law of the land for nearly a half century.
Today’s ruling will have severe consequences, and risks the health of people nationwide. The harm will have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country, but, it must also be stressed that it will disproportionately affect BIPOC communities, immigrants, and other marginalized communities who already face a higher maternal mortality rate.
In fact, Black women are three times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or shortly thereafter, and transgender individuals encounter even more trauma when trying to safely navigate issues surrounding sexual health and well-being. With the impactful reach of this decision across states, it is expected that pregnancy-related deaths are estimated to increase by 21 percent nationwide and 33 percent among Black women.
Without a doubt, today’s decision reinforces systems of oppression against marginalized communities, underserved populations, who are by and large Black, Latinx, living at or below the poverty level, and often lack resources or linkage to care.
Grounded as it is in language relating to a right to privacy, the insidious reach of this decision, does not stop with a woman’s right to choose. Instead, it has far-reaching consequences presenting a severe existential threat to LGBTQ+ rights. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas clearly signaled that the court is open to review and potentially overturn decisions that have long provided protection for contraception, and same-sex marriage.
Justice Thomas wrote, “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents…. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous, we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.’”
Protecting the most vulnerable and marginalized populations is in the very DNA of Chicago House. As such, we feel it imperative that we publicly state that Chicago House stands in solidarity with the communities being threatened by this dangerous reversal of established case law.
Furthermore, as an LGBTQ+ service provider, the direct link between the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the intrinsic threat of LGBTQ+ civil rights cannot be ignored by our agency. Core to our mission is our pledge to advocate for essential protections of the law, so that our clients can live safe and dignified lives. Today’s decision sets into motion an agenda that threatens the very rights that we have fought for decades to both win and subsequently maintain.
Today’s decision does not eliminate the ability of states to keep abortion legal within their borders. We are thankful that our agency is located in Illinois and that our clients’ and employees’ rights are protected through the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) of 2019 – which protects all Illinois residents’ rights to abortion services regardless of today’s Supreme Court decision.
Chicago House remains committed to protecting the civil and human rights of all people, and we will continue to fight for equity and justice for all Illinoisans. – Chicago House Leadership