State’s Attorney Kim Foxx Joins Association of Prosecuting Attorneys Committee on Addressing Disparities in Reproductive Health

CHICAGO - State’s Attorney Foxx has joined a select committee of prosecutors from across the country to provide guidance for the Association of Prosecuting Attorney’s (APA) influential and timely project: Addressing Disparities to Reproductive Health. The project is funded by the Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity (CGRE). It will focus on abortion decriminalization and particularly those individuals impacted by restrictive laws and policies that prevent them from accessing necessary and important reproductive health care.  

“No one should be criminalized for seeking or providing medical services. Access to abortion is a fundamental right, but for too many that right is just a right in theory and not in practice,” said State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. “Coming from a state like Illinois – a national leader in reproductive health access and rights – I look forward to collaborating with prosecutors and partners to reduce the inequities related to abortion access across the country.” 

Margaret Hempel, the Executive Director of CGRE said "CGRE was created to build connections between reproductive, racial and gender equity movements and leaders in other sectors who share a commitment to civil rights and fairness. We are so pleased to support APA’s efforts to engage prosecuting attorneys in the effort to protect health care access for all people. We are particularly encouraged that we have so many allies who recognize the need to decriminalize reproductive health care, an especially urgent issue amid a rising wave of legal restrictions designed to criminalize people seeking this care and the providers who offer it." 

According to the Guttmacher Institute, 106 abortion restrictions have become law since the beginning of the year, marking 2021 the most prolific for targeting critical services for individuals already struggling to obtain health care.   

The first meeting took place this week in Washington DC. Joining fellow committee members, State’s Attorney Foxx consulted with experts and provided advice to the committee for the development for prosecutors of medically informed national policies and protocols, training curricula, and other resources. These resources will focus on decriminalizing abortion and strengthening prosecutors’ knowledge of science-based reproductive health care methods and outcomes.