Editor’s note. The following is excerpted from an analysis distributed Friday by Thomas More Society.
The Thomas More Society has released a startling analysis of the Democrat-sponsored House Bill 2495 and Senate Bill 1942, labeled by abortion promoters as the “Reproductive Health Act.”
“The Democratic supermajority’s proposals now pending in the Illinois General Assembly are the most pro-abortion legislative measures of their type in the country,” said Peter Breen, Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society, and former Illinois House Minority Floor Leader.
“The barbaric procedures promoted by this legislation are nothing short of infanticide. These bills go well beyond the recent New York law and would turn Illinois into a third-trimester abortion destination and an underage abortion haven. Governor J.B. Pritzker promised that his Illinois Democrats would turn the state into the most ‘progressive’ in the country on abortion, and these bills deliver on that violent promise: Pritzker and his Democratic supermajorities would convert the ‘Land of Lincoln’ into the ‘Abortion Capital of America’.”
According to the Society’s analysis, the bills would do the following:
- Allow abortions for any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy
- Eliminate any restrictions on where abortions may be performed
- Allow non-physicians, including nurses and physician assistants, to perform abortions, both surgical and medical
- Undermine and threaten institutional and individual rights of conscience
- Jeopardize any meaningful regulation of abortion clinics
- Require private health insurance policies to include coverage for all abortions, with no exemptions, even for churches and other religious organizations
- Eliminate any requirement to investigate fetal deaths or maternal deaths resulting from abortion
- Repeal law prohibiting “kickbacks” for abortion referrals
- Repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995, which has been responsible for a reduction of more than 55% in abortions among Illinois minors since 2012
“These bills violate the deepest moral and ethical convictions of millions of Illinoisans,” Breen continued. “While the Democratic supermajorities in the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker seem dead set on speeding these radical measures into law, the citizens of this state can and must make their voices heard to slow down and stop this process. We especially don’t want to go back to the bad old days in our state, when thousands of secret abortions were performed in Illinois on underage girls, both those from our state and the many girls brought here from out of state.”
The bills are pending in the 101st General Assembly as House Bills 2467 and 2495 and Senate Bills 1594 and 1942. The Thomas More Society’s detailed analysis can be found here.