Wedge Innovation Press Conference
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
ALTON - During a press conference at The Wedge Innovation Center, Governor J.B. Pritzker answered several questions about the State of Illinois and Madison County.
On Nov. 14, 2024, Pritzker and AltonWorks CEO John Simmons fielded questions about The Wedge and its role in the City of Alton. Pritzker also took questions about healthcare, abortion access and President-elect Donald Trump.
He addressed an advisory referendum on the Madison County ballot that asked voters about the possibility of separating from Cook County. In Madison County, 71,695 voters, or 56.54%, voted “yes” to beginning conversations about separating from Cook County. Meanwhile, 55,108 voters, or 43.46%, voted “no.”
In a previous visit to Madison County, Pritzker spoke against this advisory referendum and encouraged voters to remember the benefits of living in the same state as Chicago. On Nov. 14, 2024, he said he was “not surprised” by the election results.
“I think people express their frustrations in a variety of ways,” Pritzker said. “This is not something that actually will make any change in the state of Illinois. I know that Madison County didn’t vote for my candidate for president, so I’m not surprised that it voted as it did on the referendum.”
Pritzker was also asked about the possibility of the Affordable Care Act being repealed under the Trump administration. He addressed the idea of Illinois expanding its state healthcare or blue states coming together to create a replacement for the Affordable Care Act; he said both scenarios were unlikely.
“The resources that are made available to people who do not have health insurance otherwise, if those are taken away, that is not something states have the ability to replace. We just don’t. It’s too expensive,” he said. “The federal government has been funding a good deal of that, and of course we’ve been helping. We pay for about 50% of any Medicaid dollars that are spent, and the other half is federal. But the State of Illinois can’t replace it entirely. We would do everything that we can, however, to support our hospitals, our clinics, to make sure that people have available to them, in their communities, healthcare. Whatever we can do.”
Pritzker added that Illinois has passed “aspects” of a shield law to protect people who come to Illinois to obtain an abortion. He said that Illinois has been “a refuge and a safe haven” for people seeking abortions.
“[This shield law] would prohibit other states from getting information about people that are coming across state lines in Illinois to exercise their rights here, and we’re going to do everything we can to continue to protect women and their reproductive health,” he said. “It is healthcare that they’re seeking, and I think that’s a right and not a privilege, and so we’ll continue to do it.”
He also explained that the state does not incur any cost when people come to Illinois to obtain abortions. The state does not pay for the procedure or the travel costs of people who cross state lines to receive an abortion in Illinois.
As the press conference concluded, Pritzker expressed willingness to work with other governors going forward and his prioritization of the people in Illinois. He added there are "institutions” of democracy “that we need to defend,” and he noted that state powers and federal government powers should not interfere with one another.
“We should work together — the federal government, the White House, the state of Illinois — on things that are good for people in Illinois. And we’re going to do that,” he said. “We also want to make sure that to the extent that the White House or the federal government is taking actions that are not good for people in Illinois, then we’ve got to deal with defending it. Most importantly, democracy is not just an idea.”
More like this:
