NRLC letter to the Senate on budget amendments

RE: Pro-life amendments to budget resolution

Dear Senator:

During consideration of the budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 8), amendments may be offered that will allow you to express your support for three crucial pro-life measures, as described below. The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of state right-to-life organizations, urges you to vote to advance these amendments, and intends to include the roll calls (which will occur during the “vote-a-rama”) in the NRLC scorecard of key pro-life votes of the 113th Congress.

The amendments are:
-- Amendment No. 252 by Senator Lee, expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should enact the District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The District Council of the District of Columbia, using delegated congressional authority, has repealed the entire abortion law, making abortion legal for any reason until the moment of birth in the nation’s capital. There is substantial scientific evidence that an unborn child will experience great pain while being aborted by 20 weeks after fertilization (about the beginning of the sixth month), if not earlier; the referenced legislation would make abortion after that point unlawful in the federal district, unless the mother’s life is endangered. The bill is similar to legislation that has been enacted in eight states since 2010.

-- Amendment No. 292 by Senator Rubio, expressing the sense of the Senate that Congress should enact S. 369, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (CIANA). Parental notification or parental consent laws, consistent with existing Supreme Court case law, are in effect in more than half the states. However, these laws are often circumvented -- activity that is actively encouraged by abortion clinics’ out-of-state advertising in non-notification states, highlighting the avoidance of parental notification as a selling point. The CIANA requires an abortionist, before performing an abortion on a minor from a different state, to notify one parent in the home state. However, this federal notification requirement would not apply if any one of the following five conditions exists: (1) the minor is accompanied by a parent; (2) the abortionist is already required to notify a parent under his own state's law, and he complies with that requirement; (3) the minor has already received authorization from a judge in her home state (“judicial bypass”), where the home-state law provides for such judicial authorization; (4) the minor declares that she is the victim of “sexual abuse, neglect, or physical abuse by a parent,” in which case the abortionist will not notify a parent, but will instead notify the appropriate state agency in the home state; or (5) in a case in which the minor’s life is in danger, in which case the notification will occur after the fact.

-- Amendment No. 332 by Senator Vitter, expressing the sense of the Senate that the Congress should enact S. 138, the Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA), which would ban the use of abortion for sex selection. PRENDA would make it an offense, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, to knowingly do any one of the following four things: (1) perform an abortion “knowing that such abortion is sought based on the sex or gender of the child”; (2) use “force or threat of force . . . for the purpose of coercing a sex-selection abortion”; (3) solicit or accept funds to perform a sex-selection abortion; or (4) transport a woman into the U.S. or across state lines for this purpose. The bill explicitly provides, “A woman upon whom a sex-selection abortion is performed may not be prosecuted or held civilly liable for any violation of this section, or for a conspiracy to violate this section.” The bill also explicitly provides that healthcare providers do not have any “affirmative duty to inquire as to the motivation for the abortion, absent the healthcare provider having knowledge or information that the abortion is being sought based on the sex or gender of the child.”

NRLC respectfully urges you to vote to set aside any procedural obstacles and to adopt these amendments, and intends to include the roll calls in our scorecard for the 113th Congress.

Sincerely,
   
Douglas Johnson
NRLC Legislative Director    

Susan T. Muskett, J.D.
Senior Legislative Counsel

Source: National Right to Life Committee

Illinois Parental Notice Repeal Became Effective June 1

The repeal of Illinois's Parental Notice of Abortion Act, signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in December, became effective on June 1. Abortion businesses are no longer required to notify the parents of a minor seeking abortion.

“Illinois is now the only state in the Midwest that does not have Parental Notification in place, an open invitation to out-of-state minors to pursue abortions in Illinois,” Kevin Grillot, Executive Director of the March for Life Chicago, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was passed in 1995. It wasn't enforced until 2013 due to a lawsuit from pro-abortion groups. The law simply required abortion businesses to notify the parents or guardians of minors seeking an abortion. This notification had to happen at least 48 hours before the scheduled abortion. The law did not require the parents' permission. Additionally, minors could get approval from a judge to bypass the parental notification requirement.

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act gave parents the opportunity to speak with their daughters about the decision, and it provided an avenue by which sex traffickers could be caught. Without the notification requirement, sex traffickers who harm minors can use abortion businesses to hide their crimes.

Click here to read more.

House Panel Discusses Circumvention of Parental-Notification Laws

    

A group of experts testified this morning before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution about the necessity of a bill that would make it illegal for anyone to get around state parental-notification laws by taking a girl to another state for an abortion.
 
The Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (H.R. 2299) has 153 cosponsors in the House, and would levy fines and prison sentences on anyone taking a minor to another state in order to avoid telling her parents or getting their permission to have an abortion. It also would require abortionists to make every effort to give a girl's parents at least 24 hours notice, unless the teen's life is at stake.
 
"Regardless of whether the girl choose to continue or terminate her pregnancy, parental-involvement laws have proven desirable because they afford greater protection for the many girls who are pregnant due to sexual assault," said Teresa Collett, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis who's testified before Congress several times. "By insuring that parents know of the pregnancy, it becomes much more likely that they will intervene to insure the protection of their daughters from future assaults."
 
Collett pointed out that 74 percent of sexually active girls younger than 14report having nonconsensual sex — and in California, men 25 and older father more children by teenage girls than do boys under 18. But several abortionists nationwide have been held liable for failing to report suspected cases of statutory rape.
 
Michael J. New, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, said all the studies done on parental involvement laws show they're worth enacting. Not only do they reduce abortion, they also provide strong incentives for girls not to engage in unprotected sex.
 
And an interstate abortion-notification law, he said, is needed for several reasons.
 
"Every study that tracks out-of-state abortions finds that after a parental-involvement law goes into effect, the number of girls obtaining abortions in adjacent states without parental-involvement laws will increase by a statistically significant margin," he said.
 
"It is safe to say that parents have more invested in the well-being of their minor daughters than a boyfriend, a friend or a relative. They also would likely have the best knowledge of their daughter's medical history. There have been reported instances where minor girls obtained abortions without their parents' knowledge and died because they did not realize they were allergic to the anesthesia."

Contact: Karla Dial
Source: CitizenLink

STOP House Bill 2467 - A Repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act - An attack on Illinois Families

STOP House Bill 2467

A Repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act

An attack on Illinois Families

If HB2467 becomes law it would repeal the Parental Notification of Abortion Act of 1995.

The Act:

        -Is constitutional per the Illinois Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

        -Mandates notification of a parent, grandparent or legal guardian when a minor seeks an abortion

       

        -Provides a judicial waiver of notice for minors that are victims of physical or sexual abuse

       

        -Has caused a decline in minor abortions by 55% from 2013 when first enforced to 2017 according to the Illinois Department of Public Health statistics (adults declined 15%)

        -Has not triggered any reported incidents of abuse or neglect of a minor as a result of notification to the minor’s parent.

The Moms and Dads in Illinois do not deserve to have their parental rights undermined by their government. 

Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky all have parental involvement laws.  If the Parental Notification Act of 1995 is repealed Illinois will become the Midwest go-to-state for minors to obtain a secret abortion. 

Please ask your State Representative to vote against HB2467.

Click here to find your Representative's Contact Information.

Catholic Conference of Illinois Defends Parental Notification of Abortion Act

As pro-abortion lawmakers continue to fight for the repeal of Illinois's Parental Notification of Abortion Act, the Catholic Bishops of Illinois have taken a stand in favor of the pro-life law.

On March 16th, the Catholic Conference of Illinois sent out a call to action letter in which they warned that repealing parental notification would lead to “tragic and irreversible outcomes.”

"In every other facet of life, we are taught–and we teach–that parental involvement is key to the child’s best interest. Repealing the Act is nothing less than an invasion into the sacred space of family life by the state, with no provision to support the minor emotionally, humanly or materially at a critical moment in her life."

The bishops go on to argue,

"Simply put, the Parental Notice of Abortion Act works. According to statistics gathered by the Illinois Department of Public Health, since the law’s final enactment by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2013, abortions performed on minors in Illinois have decreased over 30 percent. The lives saved by this law are real and present among us.  

These are the reasons every state in the Midwest and 37 states overall have laws requiring some form of parental involvement in the decision of a minor to have an abortion. Illinois has been among those states for 8 years and no obvious problems or detriments have been publicly exposed. The repeal of Parental Notice of Abortion is a tragic solution in search of a problem."

Click here to read more.

US Supreme Court Throws Out Ruling that Court Clerks can be Sued for Denying Parental Notification Bypass

On March 20, the US Supreme Court threw out a lower-court ruling which allowed a 17-year-old to sue a Missouri state court clerk for refusing to grant a judicial bypass for Missouri's law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for abortions.

Missouri's parental consent law allows minors to bypass the consent requirement by receiving permission from a court. Federal courts often required parental consent and notification laws to contain judicial bypass provisions while Roe v. Wade was a standing Supreme Court precedent.

The minor went to a Missouri courthouse in 2018 to seek a judicial bypass for the parental consent law. Court clerk Michelle Chapman interpreted Missouri's law to require her to notify the minor's parents of the hearing. Not wanting to notify her parents, the minor chose to travel to Illinois where she obtained a judicial bypass and an abortion.

Illinois's Parental Notice of Abortion Act was still in place at the time, but abortion businesses were known to have relationships with abortion-friendly judges who could provide judicial bypasses. A bill repealing the parental notice law was passed with pro-abortion Gov. JB Pritzker's signature on Dec. 17, 2021. The repeal became effective on June 1, 2022.

Chapman, represented by lawyers with the state of Missouri, asked the Supreme Court last year to take up her case and determine whether minors have the right to a judicial bypass hearing without parental notification. Her team believed that the Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe v. Wade could make a difference in the case.

The Supreme Court vacated the 8th Circuit's decision denying that Chapman had immunity from the minor's lawsuit. The court sent the case back to that court to be dismissed as moot. The justices did not provide reasoning for the ruling, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote a dissent. Jackson's dissent was primarily concerned with procedure, arguing that the court should not have intervened since the case had ended.

Click here to read more.

Undercover Video: Missouri Planned Parenthood Transports Minors for Abortions Without Parental Knowledge

photo credit: American Life League / Flickr

Undercover video shows a Managing Director for Planned Parenthood in Kansas City, Missouri explaining how Planned Parenthood and other clinics arrange out-of-state abortions for minors without parental knowledge.

An undercover journalist with Project Veritas posed as the uncle of a 13-year-old girl whose parents did not know she was pregnant. When he went to the Kansas City Planned Parenthood, he recorded his conversation with the clinic's managing director, Lashauna. She was unphased by the journalist's desire to get an abortion for his niece quickly and secretly.

Lashauna told the journalist that Planned Parenthood would help arrange transportation, hotel stays, and financial assistance for the fictional child's abortion at a clinic in Kansas. The abortion giant would also provide a doctor's note to get the child out of school without informing the school about the abortion. Planned Parenthood would do all of these things without informing the child's parents.

“In Planned Parenthood, we consider you an adult,” Lashauna told the undercover journalist. “You can make the decision then we've got you…We never tell the parents anything.”

Lashauna said that Planned Parenthood arranged these kinds of abortions “every day.”

She also mentioned that the Kansas clinic would have to get a "bypass" to arrange an abortion without parental notification. Under the Roe v. Wade standard, courts required parental notification and parental consent laws to contain provisions that would allow minors to bypass those requirements if a judge deems the minor to be competent and the abortion to be in her best interest. Such a provision existed in the Illinois parental notification law that pro-abortion legislators repealed in December 2021.

Abortion businesses often exploit these bypass opportunities by shopping for abortion-friendly judges and directing minors to them.

This conduct by Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses only serves to protect sex offenders and predators from discovery and prosecution. It does not seek justice for the child who was raped, nor does it fairly treat the innocent life created by the offender's conduct.

CALL FOR ACTION: HB2467 and HB2495

STOP House Bill 2467
A Repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act
An attack on Illinois Families

If HB2467 becomes law it would repeal the Parental Notification of Abortion Act of 1995.

The Act:

        -Is constitutional per the Illinois Supreme Court and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals

        -Mandates notification of a parent, grandparent or legal guardian when a minor seeks an abortion

       

        -Provides a judicial waiver of notice for minors that are victims of physical or sexual abuse

       

        -Has caused a decline in minor abortions by 55% from 2013 when first enforced to 2017 according to the Illinois Department of Public Health statistics (adults declined 15%)

        -Has not triggered any reported incidents of abuse or neglect of a minor as a result of notification to the minor’s parent.

The Moms and Dads in Illinois do not deserve to have their parental rights undermined by their government. 

Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana and Kentucky all have parental involvement laws.  If the Parental Notification Act of 1995 is repealed Illinois will become the Midwest go-to-state for minors to obtain a secret abortion. 

This bill is currently in the Rules Committee.  No hearings are scheduled as of this time.

ACTION:

Contact your state Representative and urge them to vote NO on HB2467.  Click here to find information on how to contact your representative.

STOP HB2495

“The Reproductive Health Act”

An unprecedented assault on the unborn

If passed the Act would: 

          -Establish abortion as a fundamental right

         

          -Establish that a “fetus” does not have independent rights under the laws of the State of Illinois

         

          -Allow for abortions for any reason throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy up to the moment of birth

         

          -Allow non-physicians to perform chemical and surgical abortions

         

          -Remove the requirement of the presence of a second physician to provide treatment for a baby who survives the abortion

         

          -Remove licensing requirements and standards for abortion clinics

         

          -Eliminate restrictions on where abortions may be performed

         

          -Remove penalties for performing an abortion on a woman known not to be pregnant

         

          -Undermine Rights of Conscience for medical institutions and professionals

         

          -Allows DCFS to use public funds to pay for abortions

         

          -Mandate insurance coverage for abortions in any health insurance plan that provides pregnancy related benefits including churches and religious organizations without deductible, co-insurance or co-payment

          Among other things

This bill is currently in the Rules Committee.  No hearings are scheduled as of this time.

ACTION:

Contact your state Representative and urge them to vote NO on HB2495.  Click here to find information on how to contact your representative.

It is working! All of the phone calls, all of the witness slips, and all of the grassroots pro-life work taking place in communities all over Illinois is what is keeping our legislators from moving on these bills.

Please keep working on them. Let's keep up the momentum.

Gov. Pritzker Signs Bill Repealing Parental Notification

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D)

On Friday, Dec. 17, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed House Bill 370, repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. 

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 required doctors to notify a pregnant minor's parent or guardian 48 hours before the minor has an abortion. With the law repealed, abortion clinics will have the ability to hide pregnancies and abortions from parents. These parents will be unable to provide counsel or emotional support to their daughters during incredibly stressful moments in their lives.

“With reproductive rights under attack across the nation, Illinois is once again establishing itself as a leader in ensuring access to healthcare services,” Pritzker said in a press release. “This repeal was essential, because it was the most vulnerable pregnant minors who were punished by this law: victims of rape and physical abuse in unsafe homes. I thank Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin), Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) and the lawmakers and advocates who have fiercely fought to repeal this law and keep vulnerable young people safe. I’m proud that Illinois continues to be a national leader in protecting reproductive rights.”

Planned Parenthood applauded the Governor for signing the repeal.

"Thank you Governor Pritzker for signing the Youth Health and Safety Act [HB370] into law," said Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois Action. "Together, we're ensuring that young people can involve whomever they trust in their health care decisions, protecting them from harmful domestic situations and unnecessary judicial interactions."

The repeal not only makes it more difficult for parents to be involved in their daughters lives, it also makes it easier for bad actors to abuse young girls in Illinois. Sex traffickers and rapists no longer have to fear that an abortion business will inform a girl's parents about an abortion. This makes it easier for them to separate those girls from their parents or get away with their crimes simply by intimidating girls into silence.

Lauretta Froelich, a former prosecutor from the Office of the Cook County State's Attorney, is one of many voices who stated disappointment at Gov. Pritzker's decision.

"I am appalled that Governor Pritzker would sign a bill repealing our commonsense Parental Notification of Abortion Act. With his signature, Pritzker has opened the borders of the State of Illinois to pedophiles, sex offenders, and traffickers of minors. Illinois is now less safe for minor girls," Froelich said.

Mark Curran, who served as the Sheriff of Lake County from 2006-2008, also gave a statement following the repeal.

"In the twelve years that I served as the Sheriff of Lake County, bordering the State of Wisconsin, it was always a priority of my office to be vigilant about monitoring for the sex trafficking of minors across state lines. The Illinois Parental Notification of Abortion Law was a valued safeguard for law enforcement, providing us with an additional layer of protection for young girls. It is deeply troubling that Governor Pritzker would sign a bill removing that safeguard, effectively putting out a “welcome mat” for those who criminally abuse children. Pritzker has made the jobs of law enforcement officials that much more difficult – particularly for those areas that serve counties and towns bordering our neighboring states."

Click here to read more.

Lawsuits continue to block Illinois parental notification law

Lawsuits continue to block Illinois parental notification law

The ACLU has filed another lawsuit to block Illinois' parental notification law for abortions performed on minors.



The law, passed in 1995, has never been implemented because of numerous lawsuits. Recently, a federal court ordered the law into effect by early November.
 
Tom Brechja of the Thomas More Society, who has been heavily involved in the litigation, says they are gathering their forces. The attorney argues it is just logical for parents to know about a child's request for an abortion, especially when a child just needing a tonsillectomy requires parental consent.
 
Tom Brechja (Thomas More Society)"The attorney general of Illinois would be the main counsel defending this case," Brechja says, "but frankly we don't trust him -- and we want to get in there and intervene on behalf of parents of minor girls and some of the states' attorneys of various counties in Illinois and fight this. It's ridiculous.”
 
He believes the court ought to bring a halt to the challenges and let the law go into effect. Brechja adds that 80 percent of Illinois parents -- whether pro-life or pro-abortion -- want the law to be implemented. He believes they just want to communicate with their children on such an important issue.
 
Brechja also finds it interesting that the American Civil Liberties Union claims to be all for free speech -- except for speech between parents and their children.

Contact: Charlie Butts
Source: OneNewsNow
Publish Date: October 19, 2009
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Abortion Statistics fall in Illinois

Illinois Department of Public Health has published its abortion statistics for calendar year 2014.  These numbers give Illinois pro-lifers information about which to be very thankful as we celebrate the birth of Christ.  The overall number of abortions performed in Illinois has dropped 2,278 from 2013 to 2014, a drop of almost 5.6%, and the number of abortions performed on teenagers 17 years of age and under dropped 507, almost 28.8%.  There were also noteworthy declines from 2012 to 2013.  2014 was the first full year the Illinois parental notification law, passed back in 1995, had been in force.  2012 was the last year without a parental notification law in effect.

These statistics show the critical impact of pro-life work in the General Assembly and the courts.  They also show us why our political efforts are critical.  The victories are hard fought.  The Illinois Federation for Right to Life was in the forefront of the effort to shepherd the parental notification bill through the General Assembly and instrumental in securing the signature of the pro-abortion former-governor Jim Edgar.   

The IFRL needs your support so that maximum pressure can be placed on our state government to pass and enforce pro-life laws.  Pro-life laws save large numbers of lives when they are passed and enforced.

The 2014 abortion data is now available on line (a copy is attached to this e-mail).  The figures for the first full year the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act was in effect (2014) are impressive.  The numbers of abortions performed in Illinois on Illinois minors (under 18 years of age) dropped by almost 29% from 2013, when the Act was in effect for only the last five months of the year.  Abortions of minors under the age of 0-14 dropped 28%.  Abortions of minors ages 15-17 dropped 29%.  Abortions for all Illinois minors dropped from 1,762 to 1,255.  Abortions for all Illinois minors dropped from 1,762 to 1,255. year.  For the two subcategories, the numbers dropped from 149 to 109 (0-14), and from 1,613 to 1,146 (15-17).

In 2014 the Act was in effect throughout the year. The result was that the numbers of abortions performed in Illinois on Illinois minors dropped from 2,213 to 1,255, a reduction of 958 abortions, or 43% in two years.  For ages 0-14 the numbers went from 218 to 109, a reduction of exactly 50% in two years and for ages 15-17 from 1,995 to 1,255, a reduction of 740, or 37% in two years.

The overall number of abortions in Illinois was reduced from 43,203 in 2012 and 40,750 in 2013 to 38,472 in 2014.  This is a decline of more than 4,700 in two years (almost 11%). 

Of the 43,203 abortions in 2012, 3,138 were performed on out of state residents.  In 2013 of the 40,750, 3,189 were from out of state residents and of the 38, 472 in 2014 2,970 were from out of state.

(Attorney Paul Linton contributed statistical analysis).

Click here to view the statistics online.  Click here to download the PDF of the statistics.

NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY

NEWS SHORTS FOR FRIDAY
(Referral to Web sites not produced by The Illinois Federation for Right to LIfe is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute an endorsement of the sites' content.)

Big Pharma Paid $500,000 to Chicago Psychiatrists who used Children as Guinea Pigs



A federal lawsuit has been filed against pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for its role in paying Chicago psychiatrist Dr. Michael Reinstein nearly $500,000 over the course of a decade to conduct research and to promote its anti-psychotic drug, Seroquel. Reinstein is being accused of wrongfully preying on thousands of mentally-ill patients in order to rake in profits for AstraZeneca. Reinstein has a long history of working with AstraZeneca, receiving regular payments for speeches he would make across the country promoting the drug. AstraZeneca was also paying a for-profit research company, Uptown Research Institute, who in turn was paying Reinstein consulting fees for his services.
Click here for the full article.


'Abortion for All'; Death Panels for All, the Born and Unborn



"IOTC" Senior Instructor Pastor David Whitney On Obama "Health Care" Plan -- Death Panels For All, The Born And Unborn. That is the topic on this "The American View" radio program which broadcasts live, daily, from 11 am to Noon (EST) and is now on the Liberty News Radio Network. Our call-in phone number is 1-866-986-6397. Do listen, please, and give us a call. The Liberty News Radio Network site is LibertyNewsRadio.com.
Click here for the full article.


Woman Pleads NOT GUILTY in Assault on Pro-Lifer

DULUTH, Minn. - A woman accused of holding a knife to the throat of an anti-abortion demonstrator in Duluth has pleaded not guilty to an assault charge. Twenty-six-year-old Mechelle Tallulah Hall of Superior, Wis., told a judge in St. Louis County District Court Wednesday that she was wrong in threatening the demonstrator outside a women's clinic last month. Hall is accused of holding the knife to the neck of a 21-year-old woman who was handing out pamphlets outside the Building for Women. The woman was not injured.
Click here for the full article.


Gluing Bones Back Together with Adult Stem Cells



Doctors in the U.K. have used a man's own adult stem cells mixed with a collagen paste to repair his fractured leg. Andrew Kent broke his leg in five places including a compound fracture, while rock climbing, when a large boulder fell on his leg. After three operations, the bones were still not setting and the wound became infected. Mr. Kent was told that he was likely to lose his leg. The bones were broken so badly that traditional surgery failed. Orthopedic surgeon Anan Shetty offered an alternative. He took some of Mr. Kent's bone marrow adult stem cells, mixed them with a new collagen gel called Cartifill to make a paste, and caulked the fractures with the mixture. Then the leg was fixed in a metal cage to gently squeeze the bones together. Six months later, the leg can hold weight and the fractures are healing.
Click here for the full article.


Catholics help advance Alaska parental notification petition for underage abortion

Legislative efforts in the United States to prohibit 'partial-birth abortion'



Anchorage, Alaska, - An Alaskan petition initiative to place a measure requiring parental notification for an underage girl seeking an abortion has collected 31,000 signatures. Organizers credited the efforts of Catholics like Archbishop of Anchorage Roger Schwietz, who asked Catholics to sign the petition and encouraged parishes to support the proposal.

The parental notification initiative must secure 32,734 signatures to place an initiative on the ballot. Organizers are seeking another 11,000 signatures to make up for any invalid signatures.
Click here for the full article.

Parental notification an undue burden on abortion rights?

Illinois pro-abortion groups may use a new law to get rid of the requirement that parents be notified if their minor daughter seeks an abortion.

Illinois lawmakers this year passed the Reproductive Healthcare Act, which opened the door most of the way for abortion to take place through the ninth month of pregnancy.  So if a court challenge is filed, it could be expected pro-abortion attorneys will argue that dealing with a minor girl's parents puts an undue burden on her access to abortion. The Thomas More Society fought a 15-year court battle against the American Civil Liberties Union over the law which passed in 1983 before the state Supreme Court ruled the parental notification law into effect six years ago. Click here for more.

ERA Ratified by Illinois with a vote of 72-45

After a long hard battle, the ERA passed in the Illinois House.  The vote came shortly after 8 pm on May 30th.  The Equal Rights Amendment passed it's final stage in Illinois with the vote of 72-45 with only needing 71 to pass.

We are grateful for all those legislators who voted against the ERA.  Their votes show them for the principled legislators that they are.

We have been successful for a very long time in preventing the ERA from being ratified in Illinois (over 25 years - from 1972 - 1982 and 2003- 2018).  Thank you for all you have done through the years to protect women, the unborn child, our families, our religious freedoms, and our society.

Leading pro-abortion groups – including NARAL, the ACLU, and Planned Parenthood -- have strongly urged state courts to construe state ERAs, containing language virtually identical to the language of the 1972 federal ERA proposal, to invalidate laws that treat abortion differently from other “medical procedures,” including laws restricting tax-funding of abortion and laws requiring parental notification or consent for minors’ abortions.

This could be all moot.  Some people now argue that the federal ERA proposed in 1972 can be resurrected by state legislatures (the so-called "three-state strategy").   However, in 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that the federal ERA sent to the state legislatures by Congress in 1972 was legally dead.

Illinois Federation for Right to Life, strongly urged legislators to oppose this resolution for two reasons: (1) The language of the proposed 1972 ERA, which cannot now be revised, is virtually identical to language that the major pro-abortion groups have used in other states (including New Mexico) for highly successful legal attacks on laws protecting unborn children and limiting tax funding of abortion. (2) The Illinois resolution is part of an effort to evade the federal constitutional amendment process spelled out in the U.S. Constitution itself. When Congress proposed the ERA to the states in 1972, it attached a deadline — a deadline that most of the ratifying states explicitly referred to in their ratification resolutions, and that expired decades ago. In 1982 the U.S. Supreme Court explicitly declared that all legal issues surrounding the 1972 ERA resolution (including the validity of rescissions passed by five ratifying state legislatures prior to the deadline) were “moot” because this ERA was already dead.

In more recent years, ERA supporters in Congress have repeatedly introduced new ERA proposals, implicitly recognizing that the 1972 ERA is long dead. For example, such new ERAs were introduced in January, 2017, for the current 115th Congress, as S.J. Res. 6 and H.J. Res. 33.

Pro-life members of Congress have proposed the addition of a simple “abortion-neutral” clause before any such new ERA is sent out to the states for possible ratification – a proposal so far rejected by the leading advocates of the ERA.

It should be obvious that limits specific to abortions are by definition a form of sex discrimination and therefore impermissible under ERA – can be used to invalidate any federal or state restrictions even on partial-birth abortions or third-trimester abortions (since these are sought “only by women”); the federal and state “conscience laws,” which allow government-supported medical facilities and personnel — including religiously affiliated hospitals — to refuse to participate in abortions; and parental notification and consent laws. Indeed, the ACLU “Reproductive Freedom Project” has published a booklet that encourages pro-abortion lawyers to use state ERAs as legal weapons against state parental notification and consent laws.

Our fight is not over. We will educate our elected officials in Congress so that they will be prepared if and when the supporters of the ERA ask them to retroactively extend the time deadline of the ERA.  These are vitally important issues that we must continue to protect.  We may have lost this battle, but the war is not over. 

For more information about the ERA visit:  http://eagleforum.org/topics/era.html

For additional documentation on the ERA-abortion connection, see the NRLC website at http://www.nrlc.org/federal/era.

Roll Call on the ERA vote: (click image to enlarge)