CHICAGO – On a radio show Friday, Governor Bruce Rauner muddied his position on HB 40 all the more.
Before being elected, Rauner assured abortion advocates in Personal PAC that he supported a woman's right to choose abortion. Then he led a group of social conservative lawmakers to believe he would veto HB 40, which would force state taxpayers to fund abortions for women on Medicaid or working for state government.
Abortion supporters say the bill would remove language making Illinois a pro-life state if Roe vs Wade were to be overturned, but not everyone agrees that is true.
The bill passed the Illinois Senate Wednesday, but has yet to be sent to the Governor's desk.
Before the measure was voted on in the Illinois House, Rauner's spokeperson Allie Bovis wrote Illinois Review in an email on April 14, "Governor Rauner does not support HB40 and will veto the bill if it reaches his desk."
While talking to WBEZ radio host Tony Sarabia Friday, Rauner confused his stance all the more. The Chicago Tribune reports:
"What we need to do is make sure that gets protected," Rauner said after he was asked by a caller and host Tony Sarabia to explain his shifting position on the issue. "Many people are very concerned, and perhaps rightly so, that things could change at the federal level. Our current law — and I believe it was put in, in 1975 — said that if the federal law changed, Illinois' law would change and automatically reverse and reproductive rights could be taken away. We should never let that happen."
In April, his wife Diana spoke at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, saying she and her husband would "do all they could to protect Planned Parenthood" state funding – another slap in the face of pro-life Illinoisans.
Rauner told Sarabia's caller Friday that he was proud of Illinois being "progressive" on the issue of abortion.
"We're one of the more progressive states," Rauner said. "I support that. I want to protect that. But the bill goes further and expands taxpayer funding in a way that only two other states have. That's very divisive, it's very controversial. That part, I don't think makes sense to do now."
It doesn't make sense to do "now"? That comment raised concern among conservatives about just how committed Rauner is to abortion and how far he is willing to go to alienate pro-lifers that trusted pro-life leaders. Leaders that placed their reputations on the line, encouraging conservative Republicans to support Rauner in 2014 against Quinn, assuring them he couldn't be "as bad" as Quinn on the issue.
Rauner has, in effect, bought up Republican organization support with token checks to county and township groups - and appears to be either tone deaf or obstinate on the state Republican Party's platform and its importance to grassroots voters.
