Judge Again Delays Implementation Of Illinois Abortion Law -- Part One of Two

Of all the pro-life initiatives that unnerve pro-abortionists, I suspect none unsettles them more than allowing parents to know their minor daughter is actively contemplating an abortion. In the minds of the Planned Parenthood types, parental involvement—actually allowing moms and dads to know what is about to happen to their own child and grandchild—is too horrible to contemplate. To do so implicitly suggests that mom and dad are not the brutal monsters of Planned Parenthood propaganda—that they may actually care about what happens to their flesh and blood-- a thought too revolutionary to the staid souls that patrol the pro-abortion perimeter.

Last year we wrote about a 1995 Illinois abortion law which had never gone into effect that seemed finally to be about to come to fruition. (See www.nrlc.org/news/2006/NRL10/Illinois.html). With one gaping exception, the Associated Press’s account nicely summarized the battle prior to last September.

“The law, which requires girls 17 and younger to notify their parents before they can have abortions, passed in 1984 and was updated in 1995 but was never enforced because the Illinois Supreme Court refused to issue rules for how judges should handle appeals by girls who didn't want to inform their parents. A federal court held that the law could not take effect without the rules in place.”

In fact, the measure was so expansively written even the pro-abortion Illinois governor at the time could sign it into law.

The list of parties an abortionist about to kill the unborn child of a minor girl under 18 could notify included a parent, a step-parent living in the household, a grandparent, or a legal guardian.

The 1995 law allowed minor girls to seek a judicial bypass or declare in writing that she had been neglected or abused. However, the Illinois General Assembly left it to the state Supreme Court to come up with rules for how a girl can seek a waiver from a judge and appeal a ruling that did not give her the waiver. When the justices at the time didn’t, the Illinois ACLU went to court and a federal judge blocked the law from taking effect.

All that changed last September when the state Supreme Court unexpectedly issued the rules. It said that the judge hearing the girl’s petition should try to make a decision at the end of the hearing, or within 48 hours, according to published accounts.

With that as backdrop, in January Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Chicago-based federal court to dissolve the order barring the law from being enforced. Her position was explained in the papers she filed with the court.

"It is my duty to uphold the Constitution and to defend the laws of this state if they are constitutional," Madigan said in the statement. She added that “courts have upheld many parental notice laws that are similar to the [Illinois] act."

According to the Chicago Tribune, “Madigan agreed with abortion opponents who said that any constitutional defect in the law was cured in September when the Illinois Supreme Court issued key rules governing how minors can seek a waiver of the notification requirement in special circumstances.” Madigan asked the court “to give the state's circuit courts time to train their staff to handle the new procedures.” Naturally, the ACLU challenged Madigan’s motion.

Earlier this week U.S. District Court Judge David Coar kept the order barring enforcement in place. He said not all 102 Illinois counties had put rules and procedures into effect.

“He did not rule on the law's constitutionality,” the Tribune reported, “and told lawyers for Madigan's office they could try again to get the injunction lifted once all counties have rules in effect.”

Pro-lifers hope this is just one last momentary delay. Pro-abortionists hope to gut the law in the state legislature.

A pro-abortion state legislator has introduced a bill that would expand the law to allow a girl seeking an abortion to notify an uncle, an aunt or an adult sibling. In addition, according to the Associated Press, the bill would allow girls to avoid notifying their parents if they receive counseling from a clergy member, medical professional. or an adult family member that included information about prenatal care, the implications of carrying a pregnancy to term and adoption.

If you have any comments or questions, please write Dave Andrusko at daveandrusko@hotmail.com

Part Two