PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
  1. Signatures
    224 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The IL State Senate (+ 1 other)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The IL State Senate
      • The IL State House
  2. Created By
    Amy Catania
    Chicago, IL
About this Petition Petition Letter

We are just one week away from our final chance to ask the current Illinois General Assembly to vote YES for SB3712, the Home Birth Safety Act.   If we fail to win or if we are unable to get a vote called, then we will need to start over in January with a new bill number.    LET’S GET IT PASSED!
 
We have one more week to bring in just a few more solid YES votes.   We have something quick and easy for you to do that should make a BIG difference.   EVERYONE in Illinois should send this because parts of the message will be new to most legislators – especially the media files.

Recent Signatures

Vote YES on The Home Birth Safety Act SB3712

Greetings,

The Illinois Home Birth Safety Act has received media attention in the past few weeks on both public radio and public television. Please review the following links:

WBEZ Radio
http://www.wbez.org/story/american-college-obstetrics-and-gynecology/illinois-bill-midwife-licenses-nears-vote

http://www.wbez.org/story/babies/state-lawmakers-mull-licensing-midwives-home-births

WTTW Television – Chicago Tonight. http://video.wttw.com/video/1676885656/

(The mother featured in this story gave birth to a healthy baby boy at home, the night this program aired.)

Home Birth is happening in Illinois EVERY DAY. The one remaining Illinois physician and the nurse-midwives in just 6 counties who still attend home births, cannot meet the statewide consumer demand. Physicians who oppose this bill, are not stepping up to fill the extreme gap in access to care. Nor are they providing solutions other than to suggest nurse-midwives, who have already demonstrated and publicly stated that they cannot meet the demand.

The ONLY individuals willing and able to step up to fill the gap in access to home birth health care are unlicensed providers. They are stepping up and families are hiring them. In most Illinois counties, there is no one else to hire.

Please make home birth safer by regulating these providers – making sure they have a nationally recognized midwifery credential (the CPM) and that they have the level of education deemed safe by the Illinois Society of Advanced Practice Nurses and the Illinois Nurses Association. Please make sure they are able to give oxygen to a baby who needs it or anti-hemorrhage drugs to a mother who is bleeding too much.

And please ask yourself why the Illinois State Medical Society, would want these existing providers to NOT administer these simple life-saving remedies to the families who no one else will serve. What possible good could come from that?

Please vote YES for SB3712 – The Home Birth Safety Act.

Thank you,

[Your name]

Press Inquiries