Illinois Board Votes to Allow Parental Notification on Abortion Law to Finally Begin
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 4, 2009
Springfield, IL (LifeNews.com) — Parents in Illinois has waited for 15 years for a law to go into effect that allows them to know when their minor daughters are considering an abortion. With a vote from the Illinois’ Medical Disciplinary Board today, the much-delayed law will now go into effect and abortions are expected to decline.
The Illinois legislature approved the law in the 1990s, but it has been held up in court waiting for the Illinois Supreme Court to issue the rules guiding the law’s implementation.
After the court did its job, state officials blocked enforcement of the law with a 90-day grace period for abortion centers to became aware of it — even though similar laws have been on the books in other states for decades.
The board met in Chicago on Wednesday and decided not to extend the grace period further that the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation put in place.
As a result, the law now goes into effect immediately — that is unless the ACLU wins a temporary injunction from a court to stop the law while it sues to overturn it.
Illinois now joins 35 other states with similar laws and the statute requires that abortion practitioners inform the parents of a teenager seeking an abortion 48 hours in advance of doing it.
Though the law doesn’t require consent, it allows parents a chance to persuade their daughter to choose life-affirming alternatives.
The Chicago-based Thomas More Society told LifeNews.com that it is delighted the law is now going into effect.
"This is a great victory for Illinois families. Girls that face an unwanted pregnancy will be guaranteed access to the most important pregnancy crisis counselors: their parents," said Tom Brejcha, the president of the pro-life legal group.
"We’ve fought this legal battle so that Illinois would join with the majority of the people in the nation who value parental rights and the well-being of their children," he added.
Not content to run an operation that guides young women on how to avoid a parental notification law and have a secret abortion, the ACLU of Illinois filed a lawsuit last month seeking to overturn the statute.
The ACLU claims that having a teenage girl notify her parents that she wants to have a surgical procedure that would kill her unborn child and could possibly cause her medical and mental health problems presents "serious and irreversible
harm to teens."
The lawsuit, on behalf of Illinois abortion centers, says "most young women who seek abortions already involve their parents," which makes pro-life advocates in the state wonder why the ACLU would sue to overturn the parental involvement law.
The lawsuit cites emergency situations and gives examples of "teens whose
parents beat them, threw them out of the house, and/or forced them to become a parent against their will when they found out about the pregnancy."
However, the law already provides for a judicial bypass procedure whereby teenagers who face domestic violence concerns don’t have to involve their parents in the abortion decision.
The ACLU should know because it is already exploiting that aspect of the law.
Anna Clark at RH Reality Check, a pro-abortion blog, wrote recently that she is excited about how the Illinois ACLU is exploiting that loophole in the law to get abortions for any teenager who doesn’t want to tell their parents.
Leah Bartelt, the pro-abortion staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois, is among those who have teamed together to form The Illinois Judicial Bypass Coordination Project as a response to the state’s new parental involvement law.
Clark admits the ACLU will exploit the abuse provision.
"It is designed to not only protect the right of the judicial bypass, but to make it accessible to young women who might otherwise be daunted by dodging through the legal process on their own," she said.
In its legal papers, the Illinois ACLU claims "Illinois courts are not prepared to handle these cases," which makes it appear it will push so many teenagers into secret abortions that the court system will be overwhelmed.
A Texas version of the hotline found 469 minors from around the country called to get secret abortions with its help.
The Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 had been enjoined and
dormant since its passage by the Illinois General Assembly. This summer, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved the permanent injunction.
The filing by the ACLU in state court challenges the law on state constitutional grounds and asks for an injunction to prevent the law from helping teens and their parents while the lawsuit moves forward in court.
The Hope Clinic for Women abortion center and Dr. Allison Cowett, the Director of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Center for Reproductive Health are the plaintiffs named in the ACLU lawsuit. No teenagers or their parents are parties in the suit claiming to represent their interests.
Related web sites:
Thomas More Society – https://www.thomasmoresociety.org
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