“The Dobbs decision on Roe v. Wade wasn’t about banning or not banning abortion. It was about whether or not people with uteruses have the privacy rights to bodily autonomy,” Duckworth said Thursday during an interview session at the Illinois Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 34 offices in Bartonville.
The Democratic senator said she’s concerned the concurring opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas might result in legal challenges to such individual rights as gay marriage and birth control, while other fertility procedures could be threatened. Both of Duckworth’s daughters were conceived through in vitro fertilization.
“It’s about access to abortion, but it’s also about access to contraception (and) it’s also about access to IVF,” said Duckworth, noting legislation to protect reproductive health rights failed in the Senate because no Republicans supported it.
“I think that we need to guarantee people’s rights to make those decisions themselves about what they want, what treatments they want to seek, what they want to do. It’s between you and your doctor and your religion, and we need to get out of the way of people’s privacies.”
Duckworth, who is opposed in November by Republican challenger Kathy Salvi in her bid for a second Senate term, also spoke out against threats aimed at law enforcement following the FBI’s search of former president Donald Trump’s home in Florida last week.
“These are the folks who are on the front lines protecting us every single day, and it is shameful that people would target members of the FBI or Justice Department who are simply doing their jobs,” said Duckworth.
An alert from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security indicates threats against law enforcement agencies have increased since federal agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
Trump and his supporters have suggested the court-ordered search for classified documents removed from the White House was politically motivated. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray have disputed those allegations.
Last Thursday, an armed man attempted to breach the FBI’s field office in Cincinnati. The suspect was shot and killed by police after a nearly six-hour standoff and unsuccessful negotiation attempts.
Duckworth said supporting the efforts of people who work in law enforcement is not a political issue.
“They’re doing their jobs the best they can, whether it was Jan. 6, when they were protecting me from insurrectionists, or even as they’re doing their jobs now. These threats against a law enforcement officers need to end,” she said.