Following the passage of the extreme Illinois Reproductive Health Act, which went into effect on June 12, it appears Illinois is now set to undo The Parental Notification Act of 1995, a law that was tied up by litigation for decades before it was finally upheld in 2013 by the Illinois Supreme Court. The law “required a parent or guardian to be notified 48 hours before a child under 18 has an abortion,” according to the Thomas More Society. The law requires notification only, not consent. Until 2013, Illinois was the only state in the Midwest that had no form of parental notification or consent prior to a minor’s abortion.
According to Capitol News Illinois, pro-abortion lawmakers claim that by eliminating parental notification of abortion for minors, they are treating abortion as any other form of “healthcare.” (Here are examples of medical services minors can obtain in Illinois without parental consent. The document notes that largely, parents are still in charge of approving or consenting to medical care for their minor children.) Of course, these pro-abortion politicians leave out the important scientific fact that abortion takes the life of another human being — the one growing in his or her mother’s womb. No true healthcare deliberately takes a human life.
READ: Teen Vogue tells minors how to get abortions without parents’ knowledge
Abortion carries with it the risk of hemorrhaging and of perforation of the uterus, even in the first trimester. And yes, women have even died due to complications from first trimester abortions. For a minor to go through such a procedure without any parental knowledge can potentially put their health at great risk should something go wrong. The abortion pill has been known to cause women to bleed for weeks, sometimes profusely, and to cause cramps akin to labor pains, vomiting, passing of large clots, and more.
Capitol News Illinois notes that under the current law, “an abortion provider is mandated to communicate with the minor’s adult family member — someone over the age of 21 who is the parent, grandparent, step parent or other legal guardian — 48 hours prior to the procedure and must document that conversation occurred.”
Those behind the legislation to do away with this requirement, Democrats Sen. Elgie Sims of Chicago and Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, from Hillside, “would repeal that act and clean up the language in three other statutes where references to it are made,” says CNI. “They were introduced in both chambers of the General Assembly in February.” Welch said of the legislation that would allow minors (in other words, children) to obtain abortions with no parental knowledge, “Men can make health care decisions on their own without having to give notice to a parent. Why can’t a woman,” adding that At the end of the day, I don’t want my wife and my daughter to be equal only in the confines of our home — I want them to be equal in the confines of the law. That’s what this fight is all about.”
READ: ‘Dark day’: Illinois governor signs abortion bill far worse than New York’s
Planned Parenthood of Illinois agrees. The abortion profiteer’s senior director for public policy told CLI, “Our goal here in Illinois is to recognize the fact that abortion is part of a continuum of reproductive health care and women of all ages need to be able to have access to health care….” Leahy added that the way she sees it, parental notification is not about protecting teens, but a pro-life stunt. “It was not parents groups that were pushing [the original law] — it was anti-abortion groups,” Leahy said, apparently oblivious to the fact that many pro-lifers are, indeed, parents. “It was part of their menu of barriers to make it harder and harder for people to access abortion.”
Others see Planned Parenthood’s support for doing away with all protections for minors as highly suspect, coming from the nation’s number one most profitable abortion business. Mary Kate Knorr, executive director of Illinois Right to Life Action, told CNI, “The reality is that from start to finish, through this entire experience of receiving an abortion, a minor girl will need support, and where will she get that support from if she isn’t getting it from her legal guardian.” Knorr also added that parental notification serves as a minimal sort of “checkpoint” against the trafficking and abuse of minors.
Even the Chicago Tribune editorial board came out against Illinois’ extreme abortion bills earlier this year. That’s a sign that Illinois may have crossed a bridge too far.
“Like” Live Action News on Facebook for more pro-life news and commentary!
