REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

A key issue for CAASE

CAASE supports public policy that gives people autonomy, safety, choice, and care as it relates to pregnancy and reproductive health and safety. While ensuring access to abortion care is critical, reproductive rights go far beyond the ability to make choices about pregnancy: any conversation about reproductive rights must also include legislation that recognizes the effects of intimate partner violence on survivors’ health, protects incarcerated individuals, and so much more. When CAASE refers to reproductive rights, we recognize that these rights are needed for people of all genders. However, some statistics only account for female-identified people. 

Ensuring Access to Abortion Care

CAASE supports the passage of laws that make abortion and the care associated with it accessible and safe, as well as the repeal of laws that create unnecessary barriers preventing pregnant people from making choices about their bodies.

• Laws that restrict access to abortion care inhibit pregnant people from being seen as autonomous and capable decision-makers, fail to recognize how exceedingly common intimate partner violence is, endanger people, and can impose severe burdens on survivors.1
• CAASE backs legislation like the Reproductive Health Act, which established reproductive health as a fundamental right for every individual in Illinois. The law states that anyone who becomes pregnant has the right to continue the pregnancy or have an abortion. It also requires insurance to cover abortion as it would other medical procedures while removing penalties for doctors who perform abortions. Its passage was especially critical as other states are rolling back reproductive rights, setting the stage for challenges at the federal level.2
• CAASE also supported efforts to repeal a law that required parental notification or judicial bypass for youth to access abortion care. These requirements are dangerous and highly unnecessary.3

Understanding Reproductive Rights Beyond Abortion

CAASE understands that, while abortion access is a critical component of reproductive rights, a multitude of other factors affect these rights and require the attention of our efforts, too. We believe reproductive rights include comprehensive sex education, access to contraception, STI prevention and care, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support families, safe homes, and much, much more.

• Access to comprehensive sex education is a fundamental reproductive right. Consent education encourages personal and social responsibility among students, is central to affirming people’s agency to make decisions about their bodies, and is critical for sexual safety. As such, CAASE has backed legislation to amend the School Code to require consent to be taught in public schools that teach sex education.4

• Additionally, CAASE supported the Responsible Education for Adolescent and Children’s Health (REACH) Act, which requires that comprehensive, inclusive, and age-appropriate personal health and safety education is taught in grades K through 12 in public schools, including charter schools, statewide.5
• CAASE also supported legislation to establish that every person has certain rights in pregnancy and childbirth, including the right to receive care that is consistent with current evidence about benefits and risks, the right to choose one’s birth setting, the right to be treated with respect regardless of race, class, or sexuality, and the right to a health care professional who is culturally competent.6

Recognizing the Effects of Intimate Partner Violence on Reproductive Health and Rights

We know that intimate partner violence (IPV) can directly impact people’s sexual and reproductive health as well as their autonomy. Because of the negative health outcomes linked to IPV, the heightened rates of IPV against pregnant women, and the prevalence of IPV among adolescent mothers, we must address IPV as a reproductive rights issue.

• IPV, particularly in the form of birth control sabotage, pregnancy pressure, and male reproductive control, increases women’s risk for numerous negative sexual and reproductive health outcomes.7
• Research shows that domestic violence can escalate during pregnancy. Additionally, many domestic violence survivors report that their abusive partners limited their childbearing decisions or even forced them to become pregnant.8
• An estimated 25 percent of adolescent mothers experience some form of interpersonal violence in the year of their pregnancy. CAASE led the passage of the Ensuring Success in Schools Law (ESSL), which would guarantee that K–12 students who have experienced gender-based violence are accommodated by schools so they can continue their education and stop the harmful sexual abuse to prison pipeline. This law, which will be fully in effect in 2025,  gives schools clear parameters about what they must do to support survivors, and ensure survivors have options to seek resources and request help from the school.9

Protecting People Who are Incarcerated and Their Children

We are firm in our stance that reproductive rights apply to all people, including those navigating the criminal justice system or experiencing incarceration. Too often, the reproductive rights of people who are incarcerated are disregarded, and the repercussions incarceration will have on their families go unrecognized. CAASE supports legislation that affirms the reproductive rights of all people and treats all people with humanity. 

• In prison, reproductive rights are often disregarded, even though 85 percent of women in incarceration are of childbearing age and 80 percent are mothers.10
• It is estimated that 4 to 5 percent of women are already pregnant when processed into prison or jail. Other people may become pregnant while incarcerated as the result of conjugal visits, during home visits or work release programs, or, unfortunately, as the result of rape by prison employees and volunteers. 11
• A common reproductive injustice incarcerated women face is lack of access to proper menstrual products. Thirty-eight states have no laws to require the distribution of period products to incarcerated people. Many women are forced to create their own period products, which can cause infections and other health concerns.12
• It’s important to recognize that reproductive rights for people in incarceration go beyond protecting those who are or could become pregnant: We need to consider the protection of children of incarcerated parents as well. CAASE supports the Children’s Best Interest Act, which would require courts to consider the impact of a parent’s incarceration on a child, or on elderly or ill family members if the defendant serves as a caretaker.  This law would bring us one step closer toward a system that recognizes the humanity of defendants—who are disproportionately poor people of color—and the repercussions incarceration will have on their families.13
• CAASE also supports policy to give protection to children of incarcerated parents, and bills to create a bill of rights for and maintains a task force for the safety of these children.
• CAASE continues to champion abortion access and care for all in Illinois, despite the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which gave pregnant people the right to decide whether to continue a pregnancy or to have an abortion. CAASE is proud to be involved in the work to keep Illinois a safe haven for those seeking abortion care.14

For more information, contact Madeleine Behr, Policy Director, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, at 773.244.2230 ext. 212 or mbehr@caase.org.

References

1. Stoever, Jane K. “Abusive Partners—Like Abortion Bans—Limit the Reproductive Rights of Their Victims.” USA Today, 28 Jun. 2019.
2. Forrestal, Hayley. “6 New Laws that Support Survivors.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 1 Jul. 2019. 
3. “SB 1594: Repeal the Forced Parental Involvement Law.” ACLU Illinois, 14 Nov. 2019. 
4. Forrestal, Hayley. “6 New Laws that Support Survivors.” 
5. Ibid.
6. “Pass the REACH Act.” Planned Parenthood of Illinois Action, n.d.
7. Stoever. 
8. Ibid.
9. Too Little Too Late? The CPD’s Response to Sex Crimes 2010–2019. Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 2020.
10. Chosid, Hannah. “Reproductive Justice in the United States Prison System.” New Security Beat, 2 Dec. 2020. 
11. Malik, Saba. “Reproductive Rights of Incarcerated Women.” in-House, 5 Feb. 2019.
12. Chosid.
13. Forrestal, Hayley. “Incarceration Impacts Families, Including Survivors.” Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, 9 Apr. 2019.
14. Illinois Governor’s Office. “Gov. Pritzker Signs Sweeping Reproductive Rights Protections Into Law” January 13, 2023.

Issues in Action

Our commitment to these issues is animated through our work, especially in advocacy for systemic solutions that prevent future sexual violence by breaking down the layers of oppression that increase the likelihood of victimization. The current policies we are working on can be found on our Legislative Priorities page. You can also learn about or Public Policy and Advocacy work through our blog posts on the topic.