Today, July 29, 2016, Governor Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 1564.
This bill forces medical personnel and pregnancy resource centers to refer for abortions and discuss the “benefits” of abortion.
We know this is extremely disappointing news. It’s unfortunate that Governor Rauner didn’t keep his campaign promise to steer clear of social issues. On the final vote in the General Assembly, every single Republican member voted against the bill. They deserve our gratitude.
We want to make one thing clear:
The Illinois pro-life movement did all that we could to try and stop this bill.
We hosted press conferences, wrote op-eds in the most prominent newspapers, educated state and federal legislators, and delivered nearly 6,000 petition signatures to the governor asking him to veto this bill.
We have never seen the pro-life movement in Illinois stand so passionately and work so hard together to defeat a bill. In fact, your hard work did what many thought was initially impossible: delay, stall, and kill the bill for over a year.
Thank you to every one of you who faithfully and repeatedly called and emailed our governor and legislators to voice your opposition to this bill.
What’s next?
This new law does not go into effect until January 1, 2017. We’re working with medical professionals and pregnancy resource centers to examine all the options. Law firms like ADF and the Thomas More Society are promising lawsuits. We’ve just launched on our website a resource page for pregnancy help centers in Illinois to assist them in handling this law. (visit it here.)
As Illinoisans, we signed up for the tough fight. Our neighbors in Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin may have a more pro-life friendly state. But Illinois is the last remaining crown-jewel for the abortion industry in the Midwest.
And despite the political cronies that control our state, for the past six years, we’ve been reducing the number of abortions, closing abortion clinics, and making Planned Parenthood irrelevant.
The passing of this bill highlights that education is the most important tool in the pro-life movement today. We don’t need federal and state laws to make abortion unthinkable.
Strong pro-life people like us are needed now more than ever in Illinois.
Chin up!