FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mary Kate Knorr
312-422-9300
ILLINOIS RIGHT TO LIFE ACTION RELEASES LOWERED RATINGS FOR REPUBLICANS WHO VOTED FOR THE ERA
April 17, 2018 – (CHICAGO) Illinois Right to Life Action – the C4 affiliate of the state’s go-to pro-life organization, Illinois Right to Life – announced on Tuesday that the pro-life ratings of five Republican senators who voted to add the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution have been significantly downgraded in its widely-distributed voter guide.
Eight Republican senators voted in favor of the ERA – Senator Pamela Althoff, Senator Michael Connelly, Senator Karen McConnaughay, Senator Jason A. Barickman, Senator John Curran, Senator Chris Nybo, Senator Sue Rezin, and Senator Tom Rooney. Senators Althoff, Barickman, and Nybo maintained previously-lowered ratings.
“These legislators cast a vote in direct opposition to life and did so at the expense of the pro-life voters who put them in office,” said IRLA Legislative Chairman Ralph Rivera. “This is a gravely disheartening development, as the passage of the ERA would put Illinois at even greater risk of further expansion on the state’s historically-lax abortion laws. Voters deserve to know this.”
State court decisions in both New Mexico and Connecticut have cited their state ERA’s as justification to expand the statewide availability of abortion.
In 1998, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled that under the ERA, abortion cannot be regulated any differently than the “medically necessary procedures” that men seek, thereby ordering the state of New Mexico to fund abortions using state Medicaid.
“Past cases have shown us that the ERA is not used to guarantee the equality of the sexes under law,” said IRL Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr. “Actually, it’s used to justify the opposite – to increase the availability of abortions, further exposing women to the possibility of infection, even death – all while orchestrating the deaths of their unborn children.”
To view IRLA’s Voter Guide, go to www.voteprolifeillinois.com.
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Illinois Right to Life Action is the state’s go-to organization for pro-life lobbying and information on defeating pro-abortion bills. We are highly trusted by pro-life political leaders and citizens alike to be their life affirming voice in the Illinois General Assembly.