Chicago, IL Today, following the news that anti-choice extremists Richard Irvin and Avery Bourne would run as Republicans for governor and Lieutenant Governor of Illinois, Personal PAC President and CEO Terry Cosgrove released the following statement.
"Richard Irvin and Avery Bourne present a clear threat to the progress we've made in Illinois to enshrine reproductive rights into law and protect the fundamental right to choose. Their extreme positions on reproductive decision making would take Illinois back decadesto a time of dirty and deadly back-alley abortions. We will not allow Republican extremists to make Illinois a more dangerous state for women."
Richard Irvin is a threat to women's reproductive rights. He said that "Planned Parenthood was bad for Aurora," and compared the lifesaving and necessary work of the clinic to a "strip club or asbestos company."
His running mate, Avery Bourne, is a far-right extremist who wants to ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and called enshrining the protections given to women by Roe v Wade into state law "extreme."
One thing is clear: Irvin and Bourne would spell disaster for women seeking to make decisions about their own reproductive health care free from political interference.