The DuPage County Board Democrats shamefully cut off public comment today, not wanting to hear from a number of us who opposed Chairwoman Deb Conroy’s resolution removing Henry J. Hyde’s name from the Judicial Office Building. I was unable to give public comment. You can read my public comment here instead.
On January 24th President Trump signed an Executive Order reinstating the Hyde Amendment, reversing a Biden Executive Order that abolished it.
So, the timing and inspiration for this resolution couldn’t be more obvious. Anything to show resistance to a populist President with popular ideas.
The very thing that Henry Hyde is most well-known for is the very reason these Leftist Democrat women want his name stricken from memory. His defense of the unborn and his namesake amendment that restricted federal taxpayer money from being used for abortion is too much for County Board Chairwoman Deb Conroy.
She wrongly calls abortion healthcare and specifically thinks poor women should be helped along in aborting their babies. No one should be surprised by this. It’s not enough that in 2017, Conroy voted for taxpayer funded abortion in Illinois, she and her colleagues now feel they must cancel Hyde whose very popular amendment has stood for nearly 50 years through both Democratically controlled Congresses and White Houses, an amendment that even Barack Obama acquiesced to including in the Affordable Care Act.
Hyde couldn’t affect abortion law once codified as law by the Supreme Court, so he sought instead to ensure that no taxpayer opposed to abortion would have to fund it. However, even the Hyde amendment allowed for exceptions in the cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother. But, Deb Conroy and her colleagues can’t even allow one provision of no taxpayer funding to stand.
It should come as no surprise, as she is an extremist on the issue. As a state rep Conroy voted for abortion on demand, for any reason, without parental consent in the case of minors, without adequate oversight, even to the point of stripping the requirement that a coroner be called if a woman dies at the hands of an abortionist.
Conroy likes to present as a moderate voice and says she was pushed to do this resolution, but in reality there’s no extreme she won’t vote for when it comes to abortion and other laws. Maybe it’s a good time to inform the audience that she also sponsored and voted for legislation that decriminalized possession of fentanyl, enough to kill 1,500 people, likely everyone in this building and more.
A January 2025 – Marist Poll showed
-57% of Americans OPPOSE or STRONGLY OPPOSE the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion domestically
-73% of voters OPPOSE or STRONGLY OPPOSE the use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortion overseas.
-83% of those surveyed strongly support or support pregnancy resource centers which are places that do not perform abortions but instead offer support to people during their pregnancy and after the baby is born
So, Conroy’s position is out-of-step with the majority of the public.
I found it incredibly tone deaf, as well, that the county board meeting began with a recognition of Black History Month at the same time this resolution was being presented. According to Pew Research Center, 42 percent of abortions are performed on Black women. These are the people Deb Conroy would like to help get an abortion instead of helping them keep their baby.
You can vote today to remove Henry Hyde’s name, you will never remove his enduring work. The Hyde Amendment will continue to be applied and in doing so save lives you think are not worthy of being born.