FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Sunday, January 27, 2019
CONTACT:
Christian Slater | press@susanamendoza.com
(312) 888-1983
Susana Mendoza Statement on Bill Daley’s Attacks on Women’s Healthcare
CHICAGO, IL – Susana Mendoza released the following statement in response to today’s revelations surrounding Bill Daley’s history of attacks on women’s healthcare rights and his refusal to commit to being a pro-choice mayor:
“It’s appalling Bill Daley would gather a group of men to fight for stripping critical protections guaranteeing women healthcare,” Susana Mendoza said. “Access to reproductive healthcare is a right – those are my values, and those are Chicago’s values. Bill Daley opposed Obamacare’s important contraception mandate. You don’t get to call yourself pro-choice and then use your power to cut off access to choice for women. Our next mayor needs to fight for women’s rights and stand up to Donald Trump and his assaults on our healthcare, not join him in stripping it away.”
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BACKGROUND
Bill Daley opposed Obamacare’s contraception mandate. “The administration said in August that it intended to require coverage of contraceptives for women, as recommended by an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences. But the White House reconsidered the issue after hearing protests from the Catholic Church and many Republicans in Congress. The protests prompted debate within the administration. Ms. Sebelius and the president’s health policy team strongly supported the new rule. But Democratic members of Congress who lobbied the White House said they believed that Mr. Obama’s chief of staff, William M. Daley, and his special assistant for religious affairs, Joshua DuBois, favored a broader exemption” [New York Times, 1/20/12]
Bill Daley set up an all-male meeting to pressure President Obama to kill the contraception mandate. “It was no secret inside the West Wing that Bill Daley, a Catholic with deep connections to the church hierarchy, vehemently opposed the administration’s proposal to require church-run hospitals and universities to give their employees free contraception. But it was the way he pushed his case that aggravated some women on President Barack Obama’s senior staff, according to current and former administration officials. In early November, without consulting them, Daley set up a four-man Oval Office meeting for himself, Obama, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Vice President Joe Biden, who both shared the view that the policy would sink the president with Catholic voters.” [Politico, 2/10/12]
2019: Bill Daley refused to respond to an ACLU questionnaire asking him about funding religious healthcare institutions that don’t guarantee access to reproductive healthcare. Will you oppose the extension of TIF and other taxpayer-funded resources to expand and advance health care institutions that deny comprehensive reproductive health care services and information on the bases of religiously-mandated restrictions?
DALEY: DID NOT RESPOND [ACLU] Mayoral questionnaire
View and download the PDF version of this release here.
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