SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago) issued the following statement Tuesday in response to the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court provisionally ruling to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade (1973) decision:

“I want to make this very clear: this proclamation is a vicious, deliberate attack on women –on poor women, on women of color, and on young women. The future we feared is here, and now is the time for clarity, intention and action. The highest court in the land is saying to women, ’You have no power.’ The highest court in the land is saying to women, ’You have no value.’ The highest court in the land is wrong, and we here in Illinois will stand for equity. We here in Illinois will always protect the reproductive freedoms of Illinoisans.”

“Today, that is not enough. In 2019, more than 7,000 non-residents came to our state to obtain legal, safe abortions –more than two times the number of women who sought refuge in 2014. We need more than just in-state protections. We must speak to the women of our nation sitting at home right now, paralyzed by pure terror. Here and now, let us reassure them that the state of Illinois will remain a beacon of hope. Illinois will not fail them.”

“When a woman comes to us, she will be safe. She will be welcomed, and she will have the freedom to make decisions about her own body without a court that has no compassion, no vision, no sense of true justice, smashing her right to choose. The nation –the world –is watching us. What we do next will have ripple effects on the rights of women, people of color, and queer people. History is depending on us to balance the scale of justice for our fellow Americans. May we live up to Illinois’ legacy of morality, freedom and liberty.”

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Attached is Senator Collins’ clip from this morning’s press conference with Governor Pritzker and other officials