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| photo credit: Jim Bowen / Flickr |
Pro-abortion legislators are using this tactic to push legislation during the short lame-duck session. The House of Representatives is employing a similar tactic with an amendment to SB3799. We are in the process of analyzing that bill now.
As amended, HB4664 would:
- Allow non-physicians to perform surgical abortions that do not require general anesthesia. Further, physicians would no longer need to be present for such abortions.
- Give abortionists from other states, even non-physicians, "temporary permits" to commit abortions in Illinois without Illinois medical licenses
- Protect abortionists who flee to Illinois after losing their licenses in other states by breaking pro-life laws. These abortionists would be allowed to practice in Illinois, and Illinois would legally protect them from other states' efforts to extradite them for violations of pro-life laws.
- Use taxpayer funds to cover the travel, food, lodging, childcare, translation, "doula support," and abortion expenses of women who travel from out of state to have abortions in Illinois.
- Mandate that healthcare professionals with continuing education requirements take a two-hour course about "reproductive health care" including abortion.
- Empower the Attorney General to investigate sidewalk counselors, pro-life protestors, and crisis pregnancy centers (defined as "limited services pregnancy facilities in the bill) for "deception" or "omission of any material fact" whenever he "believes it to be in the public interest that an investigation be made..." Those found guilty by a court of law following any investigation could be fined up to $50,000.
Pro-life Illinoisans should call on their legislators to vote no on HB4664.
