They came from hospitals, schools, neighborhood clinics, -- from neighborhoods across the city. Their message to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger and the County Commissioners? Chop from the top -- and don't balance the County's budget on the backs of the poor.

Protesters vowed to fight a devastating series of cuts that will close 16 clinics throughout the city (many school-based)—and shutter the Mother/Baby Unit at Provident Hospital and the Sengstrack Obstetrics and Pediatrics clinics. Seniors are also victims of the cuts, with a proposal to eliminate 200 long-term beds at Oak Forest Hospital. Caregivers throughout the system would also be targeted for termination, depriving Cook County’s 5.3 million residents of a primary source of healthcare.

“Stroger and the commissioners must take these potentially devastating healthcare cuts out of his budget -- or the sickness and even death of countless numbers of Cook County residents will be on their hands,” said Sheilah Garland-Olaniran, NNOC/CNA Midwest collective bargaining director.