We have an important update:
SB 1594 (the Illinois Senate version of the dangerous abortion bill HB 2467) is the bill that would repeal the Illinois Parental Notification of Abortion law , allowing underage girls to get abortions without their parents knowing.
Unfortunately, SB 1594 passed out of the Senate Public Health Committee on Tuesday and will be headed to the Senate floor to be eventually voted on.
We are going to continue to watch this bill, and we will know more in the next week or so. Illinois Right to Life Action will be sure to keep you up to date on this bill.
In the meantime, it is very important for you to call your state senators and urge them to vote NO on this dangerous bill.
You can find your state senator here.
This is ONE pro-life policy that has stuck it out in Illinois…and we MUST protect it.
As a matter of fact, it has been saving lives since 2013, and its impact can be seen in the 2017 abortion statistics report (the latest data available).
Now, we’ve seen about 1,000 less abortions on Illinois minors each of the past three years (2015-2017) in comparison to 2012, and that represents the savings of the lives of thousands of babies.
This law mandates that no physician can knowingly perform an abortion on a minor child (17 years old and younger) until that physician (or an agent of the physician) has ensured that the child’s parent, grandparent, or legal guardian has received notice 48 hours prior to performing the abortion that his or her child is seeking an abortion.
Prior to this law, a school counselor could not take a child on a school field trip without parental consent, but that same school counselor could place a minor girl in a cab and send her to an abortion clinic for a serious surgical procedure… without ever telling her parents. Underage girls could not be prescribed Tylenol by a school nurse without parental consent, but could be able to receive an invasive medical procedure without their parents’ knowledge.
Until a few years ago, Illinois was the only Midwestern state without a parental notice or consent law in effect. This allowed thousands of abortions to be performed in Illinois on non-resident minors who crossed state lines, often accompanied by the adults who impregnated them, to evade their own state’s parental notice or consent laws.
Thankfully, Illinois Parental Notification finally was enforced in Illinois in August of 2013, when the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that it was indeed constitutional, after being challenged.
Now that the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act is being enforced, Illinois can no longer be a “fugitive” abortion state – a “dumping ground” for resident and non-resident minors’ abortions.
Let’s protect this important , life-saving law.