Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s announcement comes after several progressive members of the City Council urged colleagues to protect those crossing state lines to get reproductive and gender-affirming health care in Chicago.
However, since the City Council is not scheduled to meet again until Sept. 21 because of its annual summer recess, Lightfoot said her executive order would ensure Chicago remains a “safe haven” for people seeking care now banned in their home states after the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Those protections have been in place in Chicago since 1985, when former Mayor Harold Washington issued an executive order prohibiting city employees from enforcing federal immigration laws. It became law in 2006 and was reaffirmed after the 2016 election of former President Donald Trump. With Lightfoot’s support, the City Council voted to expand those protections twice in 2020, after the election of President Joe Biden.
That is an indication that the issue of abortion will complicate the usual political divisions at City Hall in an election year. After an early version of the Supreme Court decision that would overturn the federal right to an abortion leaked in May,to help organizations like Chicago Abortion Fund and the Midwest Access Coalition provide transportation, housing and care to those seeking an abortion.
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