Chicago City Wire

Earlier this month, a pro-life coalition from Wayne Township met with Illinois State Rep. Diane Pappas (D-Itasca) to discuss the controversial abortion legislation, House Bill 2495, and the lawmaker allegedly suggested castration and sperm bank storage as ways the state could potentially resolve Illinois' abortion issue.

"You know ladies, with technology the way it is, we wouldn't have an abortion problem if we applied a plan," Pappas told the group of women, according to a recent op-ed submitted to the DuPage Policy Journal by one of the group's members in attendance at the meeting. "Now, I've been told it's a bit radical, but if we allowed men to be castrated, took the sperm to the bank, collected tax dollars on it for storage, then when it's time, to have the man decide he's ready to begin a family . . . well, then the problem is solved."

The comment did not sit well with members of the group, as they were expecting to voice their opposition of the bill to an elected official in their district, who, according to the op-ed, more or less dismissed them without a discussion.

Illinois State House Rep. Diane Pappas (D-Itasca) | facebook.com/DianeForStateRep

The Chicago City Wire tried to reach out to self-proclaimed feminist and fellow Democratic state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz for comment on her colleague's remark, but she declined. Feigenholtz is listed as a sponsor of House Bill 2495.

House Bill 2495 is also known as the Reproductive Health Act. Introduced in February, the bill states "that every individual has a fundamental right to make autonomous decisions about one's own reproductive health [and] provides that every individual who becomes pregnant has a fundamental right to continue the pregnancy and give birth or to have an abortion, and to make autonomous decisions about how to exercise that right," according to the Illinois General Assembly website.