Dear Illinois General Assembly,
I, a member of our state community concerned with women’s reproductive health, call upon you, the officials we’ve elected to represent us in Springfield, to stand with women and fix the flawed legislation that has allowed these clinics to go unchecked.
No woman should enter a women’s health clinic and leave needing a tetanus shot, HIV testing, or emergency treatment at a hospital.
I call upon the Illinois General Assembly to:
I. ADDRESS THE DISCREPANCIES IN ILLINOIS LAW THAT ALLOW CLINICS TO GO UNINSPECTED.
It is a gross and abysmal oversight that state law requires the Department of Public Health to conduct routine checks on nursing homes, tanning salons, and restaurants, but not on facilities devoted to serving women’s health. Women deserve the highest standards of care, and it’s the role of our government to ensure that health facilities are held to such standards.
II. INCREASE TRANSPARENCY BY INFORMING WOMEN OF UNSAFE CLINICS.
I call for public notices to be issued immediately to female patients where sanitary violations jeopardizing patients’ health have been uncovered. It is critical to the health and wellbeing of Illinois women to notify them of their risk of contracting HIV, sexually-transmitted diseases, staph infections, and/or tetanus after exposure to a violating facility.
III. TREAT WOMEN’S CLINICS EQUALLY.
I believe that women’s clinics should not be allowed to provide sub-standard care to female patients. I demand the Illinois General Assembly pass a law that requires clinics devoted to serving Illinois women to receive annual health and sanitary inspections.
As a member of our community charged with protecting the health of the public, I, _________________________, call upon the Illinois General Assembly to cease abandoning Illinois women to the prospect of unsterile surgical tools, dirty operating rooms, incomplete medical attention, and further clinic safety hazards.