As the Illinois House ended this week, the two remaining pro-life house bills -- HB 786 Ultrasound and HB 3156 Abortion Clinic Regulations -- have not yet passed the House. The third pro-life bill, HB 2093 (Reis) -- amends the Abused an Neglected Child Reporting Act to re-state that medical personnel and licensed counselors at abortion clinics and family planning centers must report any suspected instance of child abuse or neglect -- passed out of the House a few weeks ago and is now in the Illinois Senate.
The Illinois House will NOT be in next week for Easter Week. They come back Tuesday, May 6th.
HB 786 (Phelps) The Ultrasound Opportunity Act which simply requires that a woman be offered the opportunity to see her ultrasound be obtaining an abortion. It is her choice whether to see it or not. HB 786 was not called for a vote this week because the opposition placed "Notes" on the bill that have to be answered before a bill can move from second reading to third reading [final passage stage]. The Sponsor is asking for an extention of the deadline for this bill.
What are "notes"? When a bill in the Illinois House is on second reading [the amendatory stage of the bill] legislators can request various notes to learn the impact on the State if the bill becomes law. Generally, this would be a proper and good thing. A fiscal note would ask what is the cost to the State if the bill became law. A Corrections note would ask if the bill would create more prisoners [especially if the bill created a new crime] and so forth. In order to remove the notes, an appropriate agency of the State must file a letter answering the note.
However, the notes placed on HB 786 were solely filed to slow down our bill. There were at least a dozen notes filed on HB 786. Some were being filed every hour on Friday.
Because the notes were not all responded to, HB 786 could not move off second reading and get a final vote this week.
HB 3156 (Senger) amends the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act (ASTCs) and would require that any office or facility that does 50 or more abortions a year must meet the same health and safety standards as all other ASTCs [such as outpatient eye or foot surgery centers]. A number of abortion clinics are not licensed as ASTCs and should be for the health and safety of women.
It was admitted on the floor debate by the opposition that the mega abortion mill in Aurora cannot not meet the ASTC standards.
So much for wanting abortions rare, safe and legal as the pro-aborts like to say.
HB 3156 failed to pass by just 3 votes this week having gotten 57 yes votes of the 60 votes needed, 51 no votes and 7 members voting present.
The bill is now on "Consideration Postponed" meaning that it has another chance for a vote when they come back. See the Illinois Family Institute link below on the "unofficial vote". It is unofficial because when a sponsor sees that the bill has failed to get the 60 votes, she can ask for "consideration postponed" and the roll call is erased since another "final" official vote can be taken later. However, we obtained the roll call anyway.
HB 2321 (Senger) which is identical to HB 3156 did not move for a vote since a decision was made to go with HB 3156.
Please continue to have your contacts call or email their state representatives to VOTE YES ON HB 786 AND HB 3156! We have this whole week and continuing week after Easter to keep the pressure on. If we do this WE CAN WIN in the House!
Follow this link to view your legislator's contact information: http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByAddress.aspx
