U.S. Speaker Pelosi Says Women's Reproductive Rights 'An Urgent Fight'

DOWNERS GROVE, IL — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the nation is in an urgent fight when it comes to women’s reproductive rights and said on Friday that many other rights facing women will be on the ballot in the upcoming mid-term election.

Pelosi appeared at a roundtable event at Advocate Aurora Health Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove hosted by U.S. Rep. Sean Casten’s office. During the hour-long discussion that involved local healthcare leaders and representatives from Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the ACLU of Illinois and other advocacy groups, Pelosi said that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade over the summer has drastically impacted women across the United States, many of whom must now travel to states where abortion remains legal to have procedures performed to end pregnancies.

Illinois has continued to see a continual surge of women from states like Wisconsin, Indiana and Missouri traveling here to have abortions performed. Now that abortion is illegal in those states following the high court’s decision, women face a number of issues, Pelosi said after the court stripped them of their reproductive rights.

Casten, who represents Illinois’ 6th Congressional District, said that Illinois has seen an eight-fold increase in the number of abortions being performed on women coming from other states. He said during Friday’s roundtable that there is no evidence that reducing access to abortion reduces the incidents of abortion.

He said in downstate hospitals, three- to four-day waits for abortions have now stretched to nearly a month in some places.

“This is not just about abortion,” Casten said. “This is about 50 percent of our society that has the potential to become pregnant. This is about whether we provide that 50 percent the agency to separate intimacy from procreation.”

Instead, he just it just forces women to travel long distances, when, in many cases, they cannot afford to do so. While he said Illinoisans can sometimes get complacent over the issue because abortion remains legal here, Casten said it is important to understand the injustices that women in other states now face because of the change that is now taking place nationally after the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Pelosi agreed, saying that while she respects the opinions of others who are on the other side of the issue, she feels that respect should be returned from those who are against a woman’s right to choose or to provide women with contraception and other reproductive health services.

“We owe everyone the respect to make their decisions and to live up to their responsibilities,” Pelosi said on Friday.

“Who would have ever thought that the Dobbs decision would come down in such a gleeful way for some (Republicans)? They say life begins at fertilization. Really? Really? OK, you live by that, but don’t think that other people have to.”

Pelosi said that women across the country now face injustices because they do not have the right to make decisions regarding their own reproductive health. Like other lawmakers, she feels like the Supreme Court’s decision will have bigger ramifications and could lead to changes in marriage equality and other rights that she says politicians on the other side of the aisle now want to take away.

She said that makes the upcoming mid-term elections vitally important because of what is at stake, especially for women.

“Your right to choose is on the ballot, your freedom, the respect for your ability to live up to your own responsibilities (in on the ballot),” Pelosi said.

“(Republicans) aren’t about birth control, but they’re about the control of women and their decision-making.”