News is breaking that Gov. Bruce Rauner is refusing funding for historic Roseland Hospital as part of a budget crisis meant to achieve non-budgetary political ends.

Roseland is the only hospital within miles of a far South Side community.

Following is the statement of Jaquie Algee, SEIU Healthcare Illinois Director of External Relations:

“The news that Bruce Rauner is relying on bald political calculations to put the survival of Roseland Hospital in jeopardy and place the welfare and well-being of a poor, African-American community at risk again raises questions of whether he truly believes #BlackLivesMatter.

“And what looks like political score-setting also has an even uglier under-belly when you consider that the vast majority of Rauner’s other cuts and demands disproportionately fall on communities of color.

“The hospital has been a life-saving anchor in the community for some 90 years, serving a community that has suffered from the ugly racial politics of our city and state and the ill effects of trickle-down economics. Closing the hospital is an act of violence on the community, which will be left a desert for medical care. For Rauner, who made his millions through mass layoffs and closures, to come in and sentence this community to a lack of service that will surely lead to death and despair is despicable on its face.

“We were told at one point that Rauner would actually be BETTER for inner-city African Americans than the status quo. His strong-arm politics behind the Roseland Hospital show that sometimes black lives DO matter to Bruce Rauner—when they are political pawns.”