City Council declares Chicago a ‘bodily autonomy sanctuary city’

The Chicago City Council announced this week that the Windy City will be a “sanctuary city” for those seeking abortions and gender-affirming procedures restricted by laws in jurisdictions outside the city.

The Bodily Autonomy Sanctuary City Ordinance was announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office on Wednesday. The new ordinance codifies Lightfoot’s July executive order that instructed law enforcement officers in the city not to participate in “any investigation or proceeding related to reproductive and gender-affirming care by another jurisdiction, namely anti-abortion states.”

Mayor Lightfoot announced her Justice for All Pledge earlier this year, which “commits to protect and create fair access to opportunities and resources that enhance and facilitate everyone’s ability to thrive.”

Included in the scope of that pledge, says the Mayor’s office, is the right to access reproductive healthcare.

According to the announcement of this week’s ordinance by the City Council, “The codification of these prohibitions reinforces that commitment and emphasizes that the City will do everything in its power to ensure patients and providers are safe while seeking and providing critical medical care in Chicago.”

The author of the ordinance, Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd Ward), said of the new act, “Our bodily autonomy is fundamental to our humanity. This ordinance seeks to protect the humanity of anyone seeking reproductive or gender affirming care at a moment when our bodies and our ability to control them is under attack.”

Alderman Matt Martin (47th Ward), a co-sponsor of the ordinance, said, “Here in Chicago, however, lawmakers are focusing our collective energies on protecting people. We won’t intrude on people’s reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare decisions, and we won’t allow City resources to be used to enforce draconian, dystopian laws from other states.”