Kirk abandons Illinois women; votes against reproductive

health services for all

U.S. Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson today called the House passage of a last-minute anti-choice amendment to health reform an insult to Illinois women and an assault on the right to privacy — and blasted Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk for supporting the amendment. 

“By voting yesterday to block women from essential reproductive health care services, Mark Kirk has abandoned Illinois women and, consistent with his recent solicitation of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, cast his lot with the extreme, anti-choice right wing of the Republican Party,” Jackson said.  “By his votes as well as his actions, Kirk has shown he neither understands nor cares about the health care needs of Illinois women." He cannot be trusted to represent the interests of Illinois women in the U.S. Senate.

The amendment, offered by anti-choice Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Joe Pitts (R-Penn.), was adopted late by a margin of 240-194. According to the National Women’s Law Center, the Stupak-Pitts amendment makes it virtually impossible for private insurance companies that participate in the new system to offer abortion coverage to women. The Kirk-backed amendment would in essence deny women the right to use their own money to buy into an insurance plan with abortion coverage in the new health system. Presently, more than 85 percent of private-insurance plans cover abortion services.

“Mark Kirk says he is pro-choice,” Jackson noted. “But Halloween has come and gone and now that mask has been stripped away and we see him for what he is – an anti-choice, right-wing extremist who panders to Sarah Palin and turns his back on the women of Illinois. The final health care bill must provide access to reproductive health services for all women and girls, whether or not they are poor and receive government subsidized care,” Jackson added. "We cannot allow income to determine who gets care and services, and who does not.”

Kirk also voted against passage of the health reform bill.