Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed three pro-abortion bills on Wednesday, calling the push to expand abortion in the already pro-abortion state “proactive” against potential pro-life laws. Less than two weeks ago, Pritzker signed a law mandating that both private and taxpayer-funded insurance must fully cover abortions with no co-pays or deductibles.
“We can’t wait around and be reactive when the latest attacks come, the pro-choice majority in this country need to be proactive,” Pritzker said during a signing ceremony. “The three bills that I am signing today send a single, straightforward message: Illinois will always be a place where women have the freedom to make their own medical decisions.”
The first bill, HB 5239, is a shield law that prohibits Illinois authorities from aiding in an out-of-state investigation into law-breaking abortionists or anyone who aids or abets someone in getting an abortion.
Next, HB 4867 says that those seeking abortion or IVF cannot be discriminated against. According to the New York Times, “it would be a civil rights violation under the law for an employer to fire an employee because they used IVF, or for a landlord to refuse a renter because the renter had an abortion.”
Finally, HB 581 codifies the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), a federal law which abortion supporters say requires medical professionals to commit an abortion in cases of emergency. However, despite the claim that women need life-saving abortions, intentionally and directly killing a preborn child in an induced abortion is not the standard of care for pregnancy-related emergencies. An early delivery, in which a preborn child is not intentionally killed, is not considered an induced abortion — even if the child dies secondarily as a result of prematurity. HB 581 also allows the Department of Health to investigate potential violations for instances where medical professionals do not provide this “standard of care,” and levy fines up to $50,000.
Though Pritzker points to a “pro-choice majority,” that majority not be quite as ‘pro-choice’ as he believes.
As Live Action News previously reported, “An early 2024 poll released by the Knights of Columbus found that the majority of Americans support at least some level of protections for preborn children from abortion. Of the 1,371 respondents, 58% claimed to be “pro-choice,” yet 58% of respondents also said abortion should only be allowed within the first three months of pregnancy (18%), only in cases of rape/incest/life of mother (22%), only for life of the mother (9%), or never allowed (9%).” Other polls have conflated miscarriage treatment with abortion when asking for public opinion, clearly attempting to skew results in favor of legal abortion and proving to be an unreliable measure of public sentiment. Miscarriage treatment is legal in every state, even among those with pro-life protections for preborn children.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said he is proud that these new laws will help cement the state as a “safe haven” for abortion, especially in relation to the nearby states that offer protections for preborn children.
“We have Indiana with a near abortion ban — near-total abortion ban, Missouri banning abortions without exception for rape and incest, Kentucky the same, and Iowa’s recently enacted six-week ban,” Raoul said. “That is horrific, but it lifts us up as a safe haven.”
As history has shown, dehumanizing weaker human beings is an injustice, even when perpetrated by a “majority” in agreement with each other.
