A rally in support of reproductive rights and access to safe abortions is to be held Oct. 3 at the Free Speech Pavilion along the Naperville Riverwalk.
The 2 p.m. National Mobilization for Reproductive Justice event coincides with the first date that Texas’ new stricter abortion law goes into effect and is advance of the legal challenges being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
While similar rallies around the country will be on Oct. 2, local organizers — Naperville Radical Women, Illinois NOW and AAUW-Naperville Area — decided Oct. 3 was more fitting because it was on Oct. 3, 1977, that Rosie Jiménez died after undergoing an unsafe abortion procedure in Texas, said Mary Ann Curtis, a member of Naperville Radical Women.
Jimenez was 27 and is believed to be the first woman to die from an unsafe abortion following the passage of the Hyde Amendment, which prevents the use of federal funds like Medicaid to cover abortion costs.
“Her story is important. She’s not the only one … who’s died from not having the funding (for a safe abortion procedure). It’s important this Hyde Amendment get repealed,” Curtis said.
Rally speakers will include members from the three organizing groups as well as from DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church.
Laura Welch, a Naperville resident and president of Illinois NOW, said the goal is to help people understand what’s at stake because of the Texas law and the Supreme Court cases and to provide more information on why it’s important to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which was approved a few years after Roe v. Wade.
The Texas law prevents abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest, and allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion.
Illinois is one of the last remaining “safe havens” for reproductive health care, Welch said. The General Assembly’s passage of HB40 allows public funding to cover the cost of an abortion procedure for those who cannot afford it, she said.
“Regardless of what happens with Roe v. Wade, this will stand in Illinois,” she said. “The Hyde Amendment really, really needs to go.”
As more and more states impose laws that place restrictions on abortion, “people are starting to come across the state borders (to have procedures done),” Welch said. “They’re just coming and coming and calling — and not just from Texas.”
raguerrero@tribpub.com
