Planned Parenthood and their pro-abortion allies in the Illinois General Assembly aren’t satisfied with abortions up to birth, paying for them with your tax dollars, inviting women from other states, and protecting child molesters by permitting young girls to obtain abortions without their parent’s knowledge. They have now placed pregnancy care centers directly in their cross hairs.
SB 1909 creates the so-called Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act. It passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 36 to 19 on March 31st. This bill has now been scheduled for a hearing in the Illinois House Health Care Availability & Accessibility Committee on Tuesday, April 25th, at 4 PM in Stratton, Room C-1.
Pregnancy Care Centers are local, nonprofit organizations that offer life-saving services to women and men faced with difficult pregnancy decisions. They offer a wide variety of free care from pregnancy testing to providing material needs such as cribs, diapers, clothes and abstinence training. Some centers offer housing, Bible studies, medical care, and parenting education if the mother/parents choose to keep their child. The selfless people who work and volunteer at these centers offer hope and choice for women and men who feel as if they don’t have a choice. Many centers also offer post-abortion counseling.
The ambiguous language of SB 1909 would allow the Attorney General the right to investigate and penalize a pregnancy care center if it “appears” that the center is “engaged in, is engaging in, or was about to engage in [a deceptive] method, act, or practice.” What isn’t ambiguous are their intentions. From the bill:
It is also the public policy of the State to ensure that patients receive timely access to information and medically appropriate care and that consumers are protected from deceptive and unfair practices. Despite these laws, vulnerable State residents and nonresidents seeking health care in this State have repeatedly been misled by organizations and their agents purporting to provide comprehensive reproductive health care services, but which, in reality, aim to dissuade pregnant persons from considering abortion care through deceptive, fraudulent, and misleading information and practices, without any regard for a pregnant person’s concern or circumstances. … The advertisements and information given by these organizations provide grossly inaccurate or misleading information overstating the risks associated with abortion, including conveying untrue claims that abortion causes cancer or infertility and concealing data that shows the risk of death associated with childbirth is approximately 14 times higher than the risk associated with an abortion. [Emphasis added]
The intent of this bill is to close pregnancy care centers with attorney fees, court costs, and fines up to $50,000. All it would take to begin the process is a complaint. Can you imagine how many abortion cheerleaders would take part in setting up PRCs for streams of legal challenges to harass and disrupt these ministries?
You might also want to file a slip to oppose HB 2039. This bill has already passed in the Illinois House by an 81 to 27 vote on March 24th. It is now being considered in the Illinois Senate. This proposal allows all private health data be made available to the local health department “for the purposes of preventing or controlling disease, injury, or disability” and allows the Dept. of Public Health, Dept. of Human Services, and Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services to “adopt any rules necessary to implement the Act.” Allowing more government oversight over your personal health care should raise red flags.
Take ACTION: Please CLICK HERE to file a witness slip in opposition to SB 1909.
-Fill out your name, address, email and phone number. Leave everything else blank unless it requires the blank to be filled, then try self, citizen, or voter.
-Highlight “Opponent” and “Record of Appearance Only.”
-Check Terms of Agreement and click Create Slip.
Take ACTION #2: CLICK HERE to file a witness slip against HB 2039.
More Action Needed: Please also call your state rep to oppose both SB 1909 and HB 2039. CLICK HERE for his/her contact info.
