Illinois is trying to pass legislation, House Bill 40, to keep abortion on demand up to birth legal and establish the Land of Lincoln as a “safe haven” for women seeking abortions.
The bill, scheduled to be debated in a state House committee meeting Wednesday, also would force taxpayers to fund abortions in the state, according to Illinois Right to Life.
Pro-life groups are calling on people in Illinois to contact their legislators and voice their opposition to the radical bill.
“We need to say no to the abortion industry’s desperate attempt to force you and me to pay for Illinois abortions,” Emily Troscinski, executive director of Illinois RTL, said. “We have to act right now to stop an estimated 12,000 additional abortions per year.”
She said Illinois once funded unrestricted abortions through Medicaid in the late 1970s, and taxpayers paid about $1.8 million for about 12,738 abortions at the time – so “12,000 abortions per year isn’t an exaggeration.”
“House Bill 40 would undo a decades-old ban on taxpayer funding of abortion costing us thousands of lives a year. Please help us stop this bill,” Troscinski said.
According to the Pro-Life Action League, the bill also would keep abortion legal in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Furthermore, the Illinois State Assembly synopsis of the bill says the bill would remove “language [from state law and policy] … that the unborn child is a human being from the time of conception and is, therefore, a legal person for purposes of the unborn child’s right to life.”
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The bill is one of abortion activists’ responses to President Donald Trump’s promise to appoint pro-life justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. They fear that if Trump appoints several pro-life justices, Roe v. Wade could be overturned in the future and unborn babies’ lives protected from abortion again.
Brigid Leahy, Director of Public Policy at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, told the Chicago-Sun Times: “If Trump has the ability to appoint another justice, we do not want to wait to see what happens. We want to make sure abortion stays safe and legal in Illinois.”
Yet the state fails to be a safe haven for the women yet to be born. Abortion results in the death of a child, and often trauma for the mother for years to come. There is nothing about the procedure that falls within the scope of “healthcare,” either for the mother, the baby, or anyone else involved in the situation.
Action: Contact Illinois lawmakers here.
