Resolution Calling for the Trump Administration to halt attacks on low-income women's
access to abortion and family planning
WHEREAS, The landmark 1972 United States Supreme Court ruling of Roe v. Wade guaranteed that the right of privacy between a woman and her health care provider is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution; and
WHEREAS, This ruling institutionalized access to abortion and family planning as a right of all American women; and
WHEREAS, The Fourteenth Amendment also guarantees "equal protection of the laws" to all United State Citizens regardless of status, including income; and
WHEREAS, In recent weeks President Donald Trump moved to implement a "gag rule" preventing health care providers receiving Title X funding from sharing information about abortion and birth control; and
WHEREAS, Title X funding is the sole federal grant supporting access to family planning and preventative care for low-income women and families; and
WHEREAS, The Trump administration's actions would prevent health care providers, including doctors, nurses and community health centers, from referring patients of all incomes to safe, legal abortion; and
WHEREAS, This "gag rule" would prevent patients from accessing birth control and preventative care from health care providers like Planned Parenthood, endangering such organization's ability to provide a wide array of health services to our communities; and
WHEREAS, President Donald Trump is inserting himself into the doctor's office, between low-income women and healthcare providers, telling poor women that he knows her health better than she and her doctor; and
WHEREAS, President Trump's actions institutionalize income discrimination, the disparity of access to health care, and agency over one's body based on a woman's ability to pay; and
BE IT RESOLVED, That we, the Mayor and Members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this twenty fifth day of May, 2018, do hereby urge the Trump administration to reverse all action in implementing the "gag rule" for Title X grant funding and to expand access to medically-sound family planning care and guidance; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the City Clerk be directed to provide suitable copies of this resolution to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and the Illinois Congressional Delegation, as a sign of our concern for this important issue.
