We were devastated, like many of you, when the Supreme Court, last Friday, overturned 50 years of a person’s constitutionally protected right to bodily autonomy and choice over the decision to bear a child. This decision will disproportionately harm working class people of color.
We hope you are giving yourself time to feel all of the emotions that come with this decision — rage, grief, fear, sadness, hopelessness, disappointment, to name a few. As you create time to feel and process and grieve, we hope you can hold close to what the visionary organizer Mariame Kaba said, “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”
The religious right and corporate elites have run a 40-year strategy to take over government and control our country’s highest institutions of power. They are using elected office to implement their agenda and using the tools of government to maintain the status quo, which isn’t working for the vast majority of people, especially not women, people of color, queer and gender-queer folks, low-income and working class people. The decision to overturn Roe will lead to the criminalization of people who can get pregnant and people who care for their health. It will intensify economic injustice. It will erode LGBTQIA+ rights and increase attacks on trans people.
That is why we are building collective people power to hold elected officials accountable to the interests of our communities and to elect new leadership who will use the tools of government to make our lives tangibly better – making sure everyone has access to comprehensive healthcare, ensuring everyone has a safe roof over their heads, food on the table, time for pleasure and leisure with their loved ones, and bodily autonomy.
We will not go back. We know we will find new ways to care for each other and ensure access to abortion, just as we saw people care for one another at the beginning of the pandemic when mutual aid networks popped up around the country. If you are in a position to give, please donate to the Midwest Access Coalition. Many of our neighboring states have outlawed or are about to outlaw abortions. Midwest Access Coalition will help people travel to Illinois to access a safe and legal abortion.
And we know we need to fight like hell to elect new leadership. Today is the last day to vote in the primary! That’s why we endorsed:
- Rep. Litesa Wallace, who is running for Congress in Central and NW IL (CD-17)
- Sen. Mike Simmons (#61), who is running for state senate on Chicago’s far north side (SD-7)
- Hoan Huynh (#72), who is running for state representative on Chicago’s north side (HD-13).
We need people in office who will protect access to safe, free, legal abortions no matter where the person lives. We need legislators who will be particularly attuned to making sure poor women, transmen and gender nonconforming people, immigrant women, women of color and all people who need an abortion can access one.
All the candidates we endorsed in the 2022 Democratic Primary are pro-choice, no exceptions. They believe in providing supports to parents – like affordable childcare, and increasing tax credits and direct payments for families with children. They support affordable housing and universal access to physical and mental health care. They support building a new green economy that works for Black, Brown and working-class people while taking on the crisis of climate change, which is a threat to all children’s futures.
So please, go out and vote today. It is our last day to cast our ballots for these well qualified, visionary, leaders. When people who share our stories and experiences govern with us, everyone will be taken care of.
- If you are in Chicago and need to find your polling location, you can go to https://www.chicagoelections.gov/en/your-voter-information.html. You can also vote at any of the 50 early vote sites throughout the city today as well from 6am-7pm.
- If you are in one of the MANY other cities and towns that make up our organization, google “[town/city] board of election” (eg. Bloomington Board of Elections) to find your local election authority and information on your polling place.
If you have any time to give today to help elect these candidates, reply to this email and I’ll connect you to a phone bank or volunteer location site.
Onward to a brighter future,
Hannah Gelder, Director of Movement Politics
Jennifer Ritter, Executive Director
Dawn Dannenbring, Central IL Organizer
Allie Lichterman, Board Member, Chicago
Joe Grant, Board Member, Chicago
Don Carlson, Board Member, Bloomington
Elizabeth Kosuth, Board Member, Bloomington
Bryce Fields, Board Member, Chicago