Women Are Not Livestock

Photograph of a sheep's face

This button, and the slogan that "Women (still) are not livestock" came about in response legislative actions. House Bill 4117 sponsored by Rep. Thomas Morrison would limit women's access in Illinois to contraceptives and other resources for reproductive health. The slogan relates to the fact that HB 4117 and other women's reproductive health related bills are heard by the Agricultural and Conservation Committee and not a health care based committee. 

Executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, Colleen K. Connell, said "This is simple - women are not livestock and our health care should not be treated as politics".

As a whole the ACLU was established in 1920 to protect immigrants under political prosecution. The Illinois chapter of the ACLU was established in 1946 and since then has been active throughout the state. One of the most recent major cases in which the Illinois ACLU engaged in was ACLU V. Alvzrez in which the ACLU challenged the adoption of a new law that would prosecute individuals who record public police conversations.