Student wants the mayor to urge the school district to provide more pre-k early childhood care

 Dear Mayor Misty Buscher,

My name is [Student Name]. I am a 23-year-old college student at UIS. I am passionate about supporting women accomplish their dreams, even as mothers. I do not believe that their lives should be put on hold because they are mothers. With this being said, it is very difficult to find childcare in Springfield. Although we have over 110 providers of day care and childcare in Springfield, including large ones such as The Learning Nook, The Goddard School, and Calvary Day Care, most of these places are run out of homes, and have a low capacity. Therefore, the task of locating a daycare or childcare center that has a convenient location, a price that parents can afford, and a space for one’s child, can discourage a mother. As she calls down the list, she will find the most places are full, and if not full, they may be too far away or too expensive. Nationally, about a third of parents seeking formal child care are unable to find a place that meets their needs.  I believe that we can do something about this, and make it easier for mothers to find safe, high-quality, affordable daycare in Springfield. 

Here are some examples of ways we could help this issue: 

1. Pre-K in district 186 schools, a public day care for children aged 3-5;
2. More affordable daycare, either with subsidies to providers, tax credits to parents, or vouchers for parents.
3. Ensure the Illinois Care for Kids website (https://www.illinoiscaresforkids.org/) is up-to-date and has accurate information about daycare in our area.
4. Programs to recruit, screen, and train more volunteers to help with day care provision, working as assistants and part-time volunteers with the paid and licensed staff.
5. A regional “clearinghouse” referral service that specializes in helping families find childcare to meet their needs, with staff who are intimately familiar with the opportunities and conditions at the 100+ providers of day care and child care in Sangamon County, and outreach for families with children receiving SNAP or SSI benefits. 

 Because private childcare is so expensive, and most daycare facilities are too, it is very hard for moms, especially single moms, to afford childcare for them to be able to work. I want to help rectify this. The way that I find most quickly effective is pre-k in district 186 schools.

Luckily, this work is already in the making. The Birth to Five Organization (https://www.birthtofiveil.com/about) is creating counsels and committees to rectify this issue. They are working to provide the following: understanding each community’s needs regarding the parents and the children, provide and understand mental health needs to improve overall wellness of the children, build relationships with local stakeholders, and support each community based on their unique needs based on the assessment provided. Having pre-k within the district 186 school systems will ensure that parents, especially single moms, can still go out and have a good job to support their family. It is very difficult to get back on your feet when all your income must go straight to bills and childcare.

With District 186 providing day care, we can ensure better livelihoods for families and help minimize poverty. I believe it will help many people in many different situations. Again, childcare is extremely overpriced, and oftentimes out of reach even if the family can afford it. Most waitlists are so long that the parents are unable to send the child for that year.  This creates situations of entrapment for the parents involved. We want freedom for a prosperous life for all.

Although as mayor you may have no direct say over the decisions of District 186, you could support the district in making this decision by proposing some sort of city partnership with the school district, and if you agree that this is a good policy, you can use your informal influence to suggest and advocate for such a policy with the school board. 

Thank you for your time, [Student Name]

Affordable high-quality day care and child care should be supported in Springfield and our nation more widely.  Here are ten resources I have used to inform me about this issue, and you may also find them useful.

Maya Jasinska’s editorial for the Bipartisan Policy Center from February 1st of 2024, Can CDCTC Policies Increase Child Care Supply?

Julie Trivitt, Avery Nims, and Malachi Nichols wrote a report for Heartland Forward (a very conservative think tank) published on September 21, 2023 that is worth considering: “Child Care Policy Efficiency: What States Can Do to Promote Affordable, Accessible, High-Quality Child Care.”

Rasheed Malik wrote a report for the Center for American Progress (associated with the Democratic Party) published on May 24, 2021: Growing the Economy Through Affordable Child Care. 

The White House issued a report on July 18, 2023: “Improving Access, Affordability, and Quality in the Early Care and Education (ECE) Market”

Child Care Awareness of America supports the existing system of tax credits and subsidies to support affordable day care. 

District 186 has a page about pre-kindergarten in our district. 

The Illinois State Board of Education provides a page about early childhood education. 

First Five Years Fund is another organization advocating for early childhood education and child care.

Gabrielle Pepin and John C. Austin wrote a commentary for the Brookings Institute (moderate to liberal non-partisan think-tank) on February 13, 2023: “With federal child care legislation abandoned, it’s up to states to help working families.”

Joya Misra (a professor at Mass Amherst) wrote a brief paper that was published in The Conversation US on May 11, 2021: “US parents pay nearly double the ‘affordable’ cost for child care and preschool”

Student asks Senator Lightford to consider state laws to protect children on social media

February 25, 2024

Hello Senator Kimberly Lightford, 

I would like to talk to you about children’s safety. More specifically, children’s safety on social media platforms. A 9-year-old who has her own TikTok account posts an innocent video with her friends at the beach. In this video in question, she has on a golden bikini. The comment section is flooded with inappropriate sexual remarks from older men. This is what being lax on laws regarding children’s safety on social media turns into. On all social media platforms, an individual must be at least 13 in order to create an account. Despite this, about 40% of children surveyed admitted to using Instagram. 

Children, like the one previously mentioned, are experiencing a lack of safety. They are subjected to the harsh realties of social media. Not only that, but pedophiles can access their accounts online, and this will put that kid at serious risk. The topic of kid’s posting on social media and gaining a huge number of followers is what is now referred to as the rise of “kidfluencers.” So, what are some things that could be done to protect these children?

Stricter age verification policies could be put into place to prevent a child under the age of 13 from creating any social media accounts. As of right now, platforms will ask for one’s birthday to verify age. They don’t check if that information is true, so it would be easy for a child to simply lie to get around the restriction. A process where an individual inputs their birthday and must present a document to verify that age could work. This would be like the process that dating apps use. Stricter age verification methods could work. However, it’s foreseeable that a lenient parent could just put the account in their name instead and allow the child to post whatever they want. 

There are not many options to prevent parents from allowing this. On the same topic, it is also common for a parent to only post videos of their children to get views, likes, and followers on social media, especially on TikTok. All the views and attention can lead to large amounts of money coming in as a result. One example of this that I have seen in pop culture is a family known as the LaBrant’s. The account technically belongs to the children’s dad: Cole LaBrant. However, he only posts videos of his three kids. These videos get a large number of views, and this family makes a decent amount of money from TikTok.

A way to prevent the parents profiting off their kids would be to treat child influencers the same way that child actors are treated. Child actors have their money put in a trust until they are 18 and can access the money. This way they aren’t given the money right away and spend it irresponsibly or their parents cannot get their hard-earned money that does not belong to them. A benefit of this would be that ensuring parents cannot profit from their children’s hard work would mean the child would no longer be in harm’s way. A child being the center of attention on social media could potentially be disastrous. People online could track the location in which the child influencer posted. There are stories of strange packages arriving at these children’s houses. The only way to protect from creepy men stalking these children would be to spend hours blocking the men who make inappropriate comments.

Building on this subject, there should be a policy put into place to protect children’s data. Harsher restrictions put in place could allow child influencers to have better protection while uploading content. Implementing a policy like this should enforce all social media platforms to better protect accounts where a child is posting or where a child is the main feature of the account. Protecting these children’s data collection will prevent instances mentioned earlier, where the child may receive strange packages. 

With all that being said, I believe all of these laws and policies would be beneficial in regards to protecting child influencers. However, I believe the most important and the main focus should be harsher data protection. This should be the main priority because their lives being put on display can potentially put these kids in a lot of danger. While children under the age of 13 gaining traction on social media is not ideal, the best way to handle this is to protect them. 

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to present my ideas to you and I hope that you will take them into consideration. Here are some articles I used if you want to do some further research on the topic: 

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/17/state-government-policy-debates-00135979 

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-opinion-kidfluencer-culture-kids-waysand.html 

Sincerely,

[student name]

You've written to a state senator to raise her awareness of child safety on social media, and recommend policies to protect children. I suppose what you are suggesting is that the state of Illinois ought to pass some legislation to protect children in Illinois from social media dangers and exploitation by parents or guardians.  My understanding is that states can indeed impose their own laws and rules on how the internet is used. The law about setting up trust funds for minors who are earning revenue on social media seems like it might attract bipartisan support. 

I think the law that puts child actor pay into a trust fund only puts 15% of gross income into that trust fund. 

State laws are indeed the mechanism for protecting children in entertainment and social media, as I don't think the federal government is in any hurry to act on these issues.

You might find this video worthwhile: Leeja Miller: Lawyer Reacts to Quiet On Set.

Student suggests regular bus service between Petersburg and Springfield

 Dear Mayor Rich Snyder, 

My name is [student name] and I am a junior at the University of Illinois Springfield studying social work. I am from Petersburg, and I am very passionate about making the town a better community for everyone. There is an issue of public transportation in Petersburg, which I believe could be solved, and that would make the community a better place.  

Petersburg is about 23 miles from the main shopping areas of Springfield. However, for persons in Petersburg to get to the main AMC movie theater, the large grocery stores, or the downtown of Springfield, they must drive cars. A round-trip is typical 50 to 56 miles, and for cars with 25-28 miles per gallon, that’s two gallons, or about $8 in fuel costs for every trip into Springfield.  Older Petersburg residents who don’t see well at night or feel uncomfortable driving, and young persons who do not yet drive or cannot yet afford a car are also facing a difficulty getting to Springfield and back.  

A few ways that the public transportation issue could be solved in Peterburg include gaining Uber access, bus access, and making the senior transport (S.M.A.R.T) more accessible. 

Gaining Uber access is something that could simply be done, by a submission for drivers to travel to the area, or outside of the Springfield area.  Allowing Uber access into the small community that we live in would be beneficial for anyone who does not have daily transportation to work, whether that was in Springfield, Petersburg itself, or one of the surrounding towns. Allowing individuals to get to work every day would allow for them to save more money and potentially being able to purchase a vehicle of their own. 

Gaining bus access for residents of Petersburg would be beneficial for when a group of people need to go to the same place. For example, many people daily in Petersburg need to go to the grocery store, the dollar store, the doctor’s office, etc. If we had a few busses that ran a few times a day to these places, a lot of stress of having to find a ride would be taken off the Petersburg residents. Finally, making the S.M.A.R.T van more accessible for the senior citizens. Although it is based in Menard County, for Menard County residents, I personally have experienced many issues with them. I work at the doctor’s office in town, and there have been numerous times the van has not been on time, or has even forgotten their passengers at the office. Personally, I find this unacceptable and there needs to be something done about it in order to ensure these senior citizens are respectfully treated during their rides, that they do indeed pay for. 

I imagine two mid-sized busses capable of picking up and transporting persons in wheelchairs. Each would make four 100 minute runs between Petersburg and Springfield, allowing the driver a 20 minute break between each run for an eight-hour shift.  The busses would be spaced an hour apart, so that the first bus would leave Petersburg at 8, 10, noon, and 2. The second bus would be the evening bus, departing at 11, 1, 3, and 5. The busses would stop  in Petersburg at Countryside Estates, Senior Services at Sheridan and 6th, and Jackson and 6th.  It would stop in Salisbury, and then in Springfield at Harvest Market at White Oaks Plaza, the AMC theaters off Wabash, the Walmart Supercenter/Aldi/Target off Veterans Parkway, the downtown transport center at 11th and Adams, St. John’s Hospital, and Memorial Hospital, and then return to Petersburg.  

The first bus of the day: 8:00am departure from Countryside Estates, 8:06 departure from Jacksonville and 6th in Petersburg, 8:19 stop at Salisbury, 8:38 at Memorial Hospital, 8:43 at St. John’s Hospital, 8:47 at SMTD Transfer Center, 9:02 at White Oaks Plaza, 9:08 at AMC Classic Springfield 12, and a stop at the parking lot for Walmart, Aldi, and Target from 9:14 to 9:16. The bus would be back at Petersburg at 9:52, and then start again from Countryside Estates at 10:00. The last bus of the day would depart Springfield from the Walmart / Aldi / Target parking lot at 6:16pm. The bus could be free, to encourage use and discourage people from driving. After initial costs of purchasing the busses ($120,000), the city budget would need $14,000 for bus maintenance, $240,000 per year for salaries and benefits for three bus drivers, $10,000 per year for purchases of new busses and insurance, and $116,000 for fuel.  The city of Springfield or the Sangamon County government might each pay a portion of the $380,000 annual cost of running the busses, leaving the average cost to residents of Petersburg at about $100 per year per household.

Finally, I thank you for reading this letter and taking my thoughts into consideration. As a member of the small community, we live in, I think it is important that we take everyone’s interests seriously and into consideration. 

I like your idea. Our nation is too dependent on cars, and this limits the freedom of younger and older citizens. Springfield and Petersburg pay a lot to maintain their streets for private vehicles, and taking some of that money out from subsidizing car companies and private use of vehicles to support public transport appeals to me. I think a free regular shuttle with eight departures per day to Petersburg might also bring more tourists out to that town.  Perhaps the schedule could give a midday break for the drivers, allowing later busses so that people could have a dinner in either Petersburg or Springfield before catching a bus from one town to the other.  Advocating for public transit is an important way to ameliorate carbon emissions and global warming. 

Student wants more peace rooms in high schools

 Dear, Governor Pritzker

 My name is [Student_Name]. I am from a small town named Thawville in Illinois, and I am a student at the University of Illinois in Springfield. I am aware of your work with the education system, including your efforts to strengthen childhood education and make higher education more accessible. I appreciate your initiative to improve the quality of Illinois schools. A prevailing concern in education is the state of student mental health. Multiple high schools in Chicago and Springfield have begun to utilize social-emotional learning environments also called “Peace Rooms” in their schools where students can come for support working with a mental health professional. It would be beneficial to grant money to expand this service to more schools in the state.

I’m writing this letter to acquaint you briefly with some of the mental health issues faced by young people in Illinois, explain some of the things we can do to help them, and urge your support for any legislation or budget allocations that will support adolescent well-being.

 Since the Covid-19 pandemic multiple studies conclude that students have been experiencing higher rates of depression and anxiety. The “My Resilience in Adolescence” (MYRIAD) study in the UK compared a group of children who were in the study before COVID with a group that was surveyed after COVID and found large and significant declines in mental health and increases in depression.  The main protective factors that seemed to help children were better school climates (more supportive schools), and strong home connectedness (better relationships among persons in the home). Poor mental health in students leads to more absentees, lower grades, and a poor school climate. The Chicago Health Atlas tells us that as of 2021, 40% to 51% of Chicago students in public high schools reported feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities (in the previous 12 months—this was a self-reported incidence of depression in the past year). That’s a terrible situation. 

The Centers for Disease Control has a clearing house with information about evidence for things that schools can do that are most likely to help adolescents (What Works in Schools). Illinois teachers can consult the Classroom WISE to learn more about what they can do to encourage well-being among their students. The IDEAS Center in New York under Kimberly Hoagwood suggests ways to improve the quality of state-delivered mental health care services for youth. The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (MHTTC) also offers guidance and training on how to make schools healthier for students and staff.  Here in Illinois, the Illinois Department of Human Services,  under your leadership, provides links to mental health resources for students and their families, as well as many mental health grants.

Under your direction, school staff who engage in continuing education to keep their licenses must routinely receive mental health first aid training (Public Act 101-0350 from January 2020). Illinois students can take mental health days. The Screening, Assessment, and Support Services (SASS) given through the Crisis and Referral Entry Services (CARES) provides mental health services to youth in crisis. Two years ago, in May of 2022 our state released the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Plan, and last year (in February of 2023) our state published a Blueprint for Transformation, which offers us a dozen strategies for improving mental health services and behavioral healthcare for Illinois children.

Most schools have counselors that are there for student support including college planning, SAT help, and one-on-one chats. School counselors are an important part of our schools; however, student mental health is still struggling, and the state’s plan for system transformation has a goal of improving access to school-based preventive and mental health services. On way to do this would be to increase the number of school counselors and school social workers. The recommended counselor to student ratio is one to every 250 students, yet according to a report done in 2022 the ratio in Illinois was one counselor to every 408 students. This workload leads to more burnouts in counselors and leaves students without proper support. Furthermore, school counselors are not always trained to handle the wide array of issues students may be facing. 

Teachers are also getting more involved in finding ways to support their students. Psychologists have been developing training to teach teachers how to react during times of student distress. One training that was developed by Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the NCSMH is a free online course called Classroom WISE. This is a step in the right direction. Similarly to school counselors, teachers have a lot on their plate and do not always have the time or knowledge to help a student working through things like depression and trauma. 

I would especially like to draw your attention to Peace Rooms. These are described as a safe space where students can talk through difficult times and regulate their emotions with a mental health professional before returning to class. These rooms can be utilized for individual use or to work through things as a group. Peace rooms can serve multiple functions such as a space for students to talk through interpersonal issues, a safe space for before and after school, and an alternative to out of school suspensions. Students can not always rely on parents to support their mental health needs and school staff do not know what home looks like for each student. Peace rooms allow students to take initiative with their mental health and seek out support with ease.

Concerns regarding the peace rooms include miscommunication about when to refer students to the peace room, and some staff do not agree on using peace rooms as an alternative to suspensions. There are also concerns that students may not use the rooms appropriately and may take advantage of being out of class. 

A school in Chicago partnered with UMOJA to implement a peace room for their students. A 12th grader named Alijah (“AJ”) shared his experience with the peace room. He shared that he has no one to talk to about what he was going through and he had recently experienced the death of his brother. AJ expressed appreciation for the support he got from Asher Miller, a specialist through UMOJA, who helped him recognize that he could grieve at his own pace. AJ said that it “was like someone finally understands that I want to succeed, but mentally I’m not as prepared as everyone else.” Staff note that before UMOJA was implemented, the suspensions were higher and there were more fights. The peace room has also been used for teachers to change the way they work with students. The peace room also fosters connection between students and teachers and creates a more positive climate at school. 

Overall teachers have reported fewer absences from students, less suspensions and less fights after utilizing peace rooms. It would benefit teachers and students to expand the implementation of peace rooms across schools in Illinois and I hope you seriously consider this option. 

A key problem in implementing the excellent plans you and your administration have put in place to improve mental health for adolescents is that the state does not raise sufficient revenue to find what needs to be funded. Recently the base operating expenditures by the state government were $48.3 billion (FY 2024 budget), but when you look at what we really need to do for K-12, higher education, DCFS, ending functional homelessness, and improving our mental health and substance abuse prevention and treatment systems, we should probably be spending about $53 billion.  The revenue we get from sales taxes, income taxes, and corporate incomes taxes (approximately $41.4 billion in fiscal year 2023) is too low by about $5 billion. 

Further, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that Illinois has one of the most regressive ways of collecting revenue for local and state government, with the lowest quintile of Illinois residents paying about 14.8% of their income in various state and local taxes, while the top 1% typically pays only 7.3%.  I hope you will pursue a serious overhaul of the state tax system.  Personally, I would recommend abolishing the general sales tax (keeping excise taxes on things like gasoline, cigarettes, alcohol, and so forth), as poor people pay too much on sales taxes, and states that have no sales taxes enjoy many advantages in their retail industries. I also wish the state would establish a property tax cap of 1%, and allow more local expenses to be covered through a distribution of state income taxes, to relieve the reliance on high property taxes.  

To generate revenue while ending the general state sales tax and reducing property taxes, we would need to dramatically increase our flat rate income taxes, up to something like 14%, I should think.  However, we can decrease the burden of these income taxes by significantly raising the general standard deductions, increasing the state child tax credit, increasing the state earned income tax credit, and generally allowing more tax deductions for charitable giving, medical expenses, and educational costs. The tax system overhaul ought to bring the total local and state tax burden for the bottom quintile down from 14.8% to something under 4%. The middle 60% should see only the slightest net tax burden decrease (from something like 12.1% now to something closer to 11.5%), and those in the top 1% and the top 20% should see their tax burden increase, but not above the the taxes paid in New York (13.5%), perhaps instead something like 12% to 12.5% (the top quintile now pays about 9.4%, and the top 1% now pays about 7.3%).

                                                                    Thank you for all the fine work, [student_name]. 

Splett, J. W., & Conversation. (2023, October 10). Doubling counselors in schools won’t solve kids’ mental health crisis—here’s what else to do. Fortune. https://fortune.com/2023/10/10/doubling-counselors-in-schools-kids-mental-health-crisis-solutions/

Abrams, Z. (n.d.). Kids’ mental health is in crisis. Here’s what psychologists are doing to help. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/01/trends-improving-youth-mental-health

Tool: Create a high school peace room. (2020). https://schoolguide.casel.org/uploads/sites/2/2020/11/2020.11.10_High-School-Peace-Rooms_FINAL.pdf 

Liang, C. T. H., Gutekunst, M. H. C., Liu, L., Rosenberger, T., & Kohler, B. A. (2023). Formative evaluation of Peace Spaces in a middle school: Teacher perceptions and student usage. Psychology in the Schools, 61(1), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.23045

ND Film Group. (2019, March 18). UMOJA - One student’s restorative justice journey in an Umoja peace room [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6inVs4Op8I

Montero-Marin, J; Hinze, V; Mansfield, K; et al., (2023, Sept 21) Young People’s Mental Health Changes, Risk, and Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(9):e2335016.  doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.35016 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2809780 

Access to Family Building Act

 February 28 2024

JB Pritzker

401 S. Spring St.

Springfield, IL 62704

RE: In Support of the Access to Family Building Act

Dear Governor Pritzker,

My name is [Student_Name] and I am currently pursuing my bachelor’s degree in Social Work at the University of Illinois in Springfield. I have been born and raised in Illinois, and I have always felt grateful to be from a state that values women’s reproductive rights, and I appreciate your dedication to ensuring that people can easily receive abortions and reproductive care. Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, women’s reproductive autonomy has been under attack in a plethora of ways. Women across the nation have lost their right to an abortion or have had their access severely limited, many of these bans are enforced through criminal penalties or jail time. The bills that Republican legislators have been proposing are beginning to become ridiculous examples of what we face in this post Roe v. Wade era, such as a recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that deemed all fertilized embryos to be people. This is causing big problems for In vitro fertilization (or IVF) facilities, as the ruling means damaging or discarding any fertilized egg outside the body could potentially lead to criminal charges. During the IVF process, more eggs than children desired are fertilized in order to increase the chance of success for the fetuses to be viable, so this ruling calls into question what facilities are meant to do with the excess frozen embryos or embryos they know will not be successful. Facilities across the state have come to a standstill in providing services as they try to transport their eggs to surrounding states. Women struggling with infertility are not the only ones being affected by the IVF ruling. There are many women who have potentially terminal illnesses such as cancer who have chosen to freeze their eggs for later use in fear that their medical treatments could cause them to lose their ability to have kids. This ruling puts these frozen embryos into limbo as well because healthcare providers do not want to be legally liable for any damage. 

Tammy Duckworth, in conjunction with Patty Murrary, the Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, and U.S. state representative, Susan Wild, has proposed a bill known as the Access to Family Building Act which would provide federal IVF protections nationwide and override any state rulings like the one in Alabama. Duckworth proposed this bill in 2022, but it was blocked by Republicans at that time. She is reintroducing it for a vote now because of the attention that IVF rights are getting, due to the halting of treatment in some states. The Access to Family Building Act would add protections to those who choose to undergo IVF or donate genetic material and for the health care professionals that work in fertility facilities. Tammy herself is open about how she used IVF to have her daughters. She understands on a personal level how IVF services help families struggling with infertility, have the children that they’ve always dreamed of. 

Unlike much of the anti-choice legislation that has been introduced post Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the IVF ruling in Alabama only makes it more difficult for women to have kids, which oddly enough is the opposite sentiment of the Republican party’s “pro-life” agenda. A few Republicans seem to have realized their mistake however, as some are scrambling to come up with a bill that will allow women to receive IVF treatments, but still limit reproductive rights. One bill that was co-sponsored by Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson would define life as beginning at conception, which would remove any potential issues with IVF but would cause problems for women seeking abortions.  

Why anyone would want to target this service in the first place is beyond me, which is why protecting these facilities should be a huge priority. This is why instead of supporting any other bill being proposed to protect IVF, I support Tammy Duckworth’s Access to Family Building Act. This bill is important to me because I have no idea if in my future I will need IVF to start a family of my own. I want to protect IVF because without it, many couples will lose their one opportunity to have children. Solidifying the right to IVF services and allowing the Department of Justice to prevent any entity that attempts to violate such protections will be a monumentally positive, bipartisan decision for women and families everywhere. I ask that you support this bill as well to help ensure that women across the country have access to this service without worry.  Dick Durbin is a cosponsor, as are nearly all of the other Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

I know that you are a governor, and you have no direct influence over what happens in the U.S. Senate, and you probably don’t have much influence over Republicans in the Senate, or members of the U.S. House of Representatives.  But as a governor, you can bring attention to proposed national legislation, and offer your support in a public way that would help build pressure to get this bill passed.  Many Republicans are in favor of allowing IVF services to continue to help women conceive children, and if governors such as you speak out publicly and call for this to be a non-partisan effort to get a bipartisan bill passed in Congress, I think this will help build pressure on moderate Republicans from other states.  I think governors should occasionally speak out on national legislation and national policy, and this is an issue where I believe your voice could help to make a difference. To bring the moderate Republicans on board, it seems to me Democrats such as yourself ought to invite people to see this bill as one that should not be partisan, and call on the moderates in the Republican Party to reject the extreme opinions that have informed the Alabama's Supreme Court decision. I fear that characterizing opposition to Duckworth's Access to Family Building Act as typical Republican attacks on women's rights would only push more of the Republicans and their voters away from this very good bill, which ought to have widespread bipartisan support. 

Sincerely,

[Student_Name]

[Student_Street_Address]

[Student City, State, and Zip Code]

Works Cited

Demante, B. & Jones K.B. (2023, June 15). A year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, trends in state abortion laws have emerged. American Progress CAP 20. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/a-year-after-the-supreme-court-overturned-roe-v-wade-trends-in-state-abortion-laws-have-emerged/ 

Duckworth, T., & Murray, P. (2024, January 18). New Duckworth-Murray WILD Bill Would Protect Right to Access IVF & Other Assisted Reproductive Technology for Every American. Tammy Duckworth U.S. Senator for Illinois. https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/news/press-releases/new-duckworth-murray-wild-bill-would-protect-right-to-access-ivf-other-assisted-reproductive-technology-for-every-american

Hubbard, K. (2024, February 27). IVF: Tammy Duckworth on Senate bill vote.CBS News.  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivf-tammy-duckworth-senate-bill-vote/

Raman, S. (2024, February 23). Alabama IVF ruling spurs a GOP reckoning on conception bills. Roll Call. https://rollcall.com/2024/02/23/alabama-ivf-ruling-spurs-a-gop-reckoning-on-conception-bills/

Shapiro, A., Mohammad, L., & Handel, S. (2024, February 27). IVF legislation: Tammy Duckworth reacts to Alabama Supreme Court ruling. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/02/27/1234158504/ivf-legislation-tammy-duckworth-alabama-supreme-court