JB Pritzker Launches Abortion Rights Group Think Big America
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has launched a national nonprofit group focused on protecting and expanding abortion rights in states across the country, part of a broader mission of “combating far-right extremism.”
Think Big America is a nonprofit issue advocacy group focused on promoting ballot measures that would codify abortion rights like those in Nevada, Ohio, and Arizona.
In a video announcement published Wednesday, Pritzker said he believed a “far-right agenda” has already taken hold in many places in the U.S.
“The end of reproductive rights. Widespread book bans. A rollback of voting rights and civil rights. The erosion of trust in our institutions,” the governor warned against. “That will be our permanent reality if we don’t act now.”
Democrats have seen a run of success by focusing on abortion in a number of states since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year. There are signs that Republicans are trying to go on the offensive, with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin recently launching ads that paint Democrats as “extreme” on abortion and alleging that they don’t back any limits on the procedure. But Democrats see abortion rights as a winning issue for them.
A number of abortion rights nonprofits are already working on measures to codify abortion rights and Think Big America will add a new flush of cash from Governor Pritzker, who is self-funding the organization.
Pritzker has long been involved with abortion rights. He often shares that he attended abortion rights marches with his mother, and he signed the Reproductive Health Act of 2019, which protects access to reproductive health care in the state of Illinois — including abortion — into law. The governor also contributed to abortion rights efforts in Kansas, Wisconsin and Ohio in the last year and a half.
