All Eyes on 3pm Hearing Today in Circuit Court
In a surprise move this morning, the doctors of the Medical Board - some saying that they are not "babysitters" for the Illinois Courts - refused to extend their "grace period" against enforcement of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Legal Counsel for the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation had tried to convince the doctors to extend the "grace period" for another 180 days. The doctors unanimously refused that request.
Robert Fernandez, a non-doctor member of the Board and an attorney for Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, tried to save the "grace period" by proposing that the Board extend for just 90 days. (The Sonnenschein law firm serves as outside counsel for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the state's largest abortion provider.) The doctors of the Board rejected that proposal, as well.
Now, all eyes turn to the Cook County Circuit Court, where at 3p.m. today, attorneys for the ACLU, the State of Illinois, and the Thomas More Society will face off on the ACLU's attempt to read a broad right to abortion into the Illinois Constitution. The federal courts have already ruled that the Parental Notice Act is valid and constitutional under the U.S. Constitution, and the Illinois Supreme Court has instructed [PDF of letter] that "our state courts are prepared to proceed to apply the law as enacted."
(As an aside, persons manning the phones at the Governor's office today are telling callers that the Parental Notice Act is in-force - some staffers have mentioned that the office has received "a ton" of calls from Illinoisans urging the Governor to uphold Parental Notice.)
Source: Thomas More Soceity
