Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County Iris Y. Martinez Condemns Overturned Rule of Roe V. Wade Opinion of the Supreme Court

CHICAGO, IL. Today, the U.S. Supreme Court returned our country back to darkened days by eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. The Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade is an abhorrent decision that curtails women’s rights, and of their status as free and equal citizens.

I have fought most of my adult life to protect women’s rights. Women’s fundamental decisions are her own to make, not to be made by some right-wing male Republicans.

Women of color and women in poverty are at much higher risk of maternal mortality. Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. More women of color will die because of this decision. Whether an abortion will be a safe medical procedure or one that is illegal and dangerous now will be determined by zip code, putting the health and lives of women at risk.

“The system doesn’t care if women die at the hands of abusers, from poverty, or from poor healthcare, and certainly not from dangerous pregnancies, childbirth, and unsafe abortions. The system is racist, sexist, and elitist at its core and designed to dictate who deserves to be a mother” said Cook County Circuit Court Clerk Iris Y. Martinez .

The right to body autonomy is a self-evident human right that cannot be taken away; it can only be violated. Once we concede that right, we give up everything.