According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, Illinois has the disconcerting distinction of being the top state for out-migration. That is, Illinoisans are leaving the state in record numbers. This is not a new trend. For 6 years in a row, Illinois has had a net population loss.

Is there a connection between the exit from Illinois and our high taxes, political corruption, pension debt, radical abortion expansion, “LGBT” indoctrination and many other foolish policies? We believe there is, and the 2017 taxpayer funding of abortion bill signed by Bruce Rauner is a component in the overall disgust people have with Illinois politics and its moral drift.

Last year, state lawmakers passed abortion expansion legislation (SB 25), and Governor JB Pritzker signed it into law. With this expansion, they opened the door to ending what little protection there is for young girls, a protection we fought long and hard for: Parental Notification of Abortion. This Illinois law requires abortion mills in Illinois to notify a parent or adult family member if a minor female (17 or younger) seeks an abortion, unless a judge gives a waiver. The family member does not have to give permission for the abortion, they simply must be notified 48 hours in advance of this dangerous medical or surgical procedure.

Please understand that the law does not require consent from the parents (or guardians) of these girls whose mental, physical, and spiritual well-being they deeply care about. Parents need only be notified. Now abortion cheerleaders want to repeal even that.

Repealing Parental Notice is a high priority for some left-wing groups. The Chicago Sun-Times published an op/ed in favor of repeal last year. The ACLU, Planned Parenthood, NARAL and even Equality Illinois are working to repeal this protection. Well-known political activist Terry Cosgrove, president of Personal PAC, told Illinois Playbook that the repeal is “the most important bill coming up.”

Personal PAC believes that “every woman has the absolute right to make her own decisions about her body, without government, spousal, parental or religious interference and without regard to her financial circumstances.” Personal PAC cares not at all about the bodies of humans in the womb.

Repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion law does nothing to protect the vulnerable young girls who fall prey to older men but will instead protect their abusers. This cannot be allowed to happen.

State Representative Brad Halbrook (R-Shelbyville) also believes that during this upcoming session, which begins on January 28th, lawmakers will push to repeal Parental Notification, while John Ryan, a pro-life advocate from the Illinois Federation for Right to Life suggests that pro-aborts may just amend the law instead of repealing it:

There have been suggestions that the pro-abortion legislators might not repeal parental notice but, rather, amend it to include a way around the parents that would completely gut the law.  One example of a bypass that has been proposed in Illinois and elsewhere would have the notice go to a clergy person.  However, if the abortion clinic had a pro-abortion minister who was a de facto chaplain for the clinic all that would be necessary would be that that minister keep a minimal record of each minor who advised him that they were going to have an abortion and provide some kind of statement or form to the minor or directly to the clinic.  If a legislator tries to suggest to you that any clergy bypass provision would stipulate that the clergy person would be known to the family or have existing organizational ties to either the young woman or to her family, ask them just how they would draft that language to effectively exclude clergy people who were not previously known to the family . . . . and the same for the young woman.

Abortion involves not merely serious health risks but the voluntary destruction of the life of another human being. Minor girls (and would-be mothers) need and deserve the input of those who love them most. Repealing Parental Notification isn’t about minors’ health and parental rights but about extremists’ obsession with an absolute, unfettered, and warped view of sexual freedom–at any age.

Whether the law is amended to notify clergy instead of parents or repealed entirely, these changes in legislation will harm young girls in the state. We must do what we can to preserve what little protection we currently have for minor girls and their parents or guardians.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact your state lawmakers. Let them know that gutting or repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act is unacceptable. Ask them to oppose any and all efforts to repeal or amend the law and instead uphold parental rights.

Please also make a couple of calls to reinforce your emails. The Capitol switchboard number is (217) 782-2000. Additionally, if you are able, please make an appointment to see your state representative and state senator in their district offices. Visiting them is the most effective approach.

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

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Illinois’ newly installed governor, billionaire J.B. Pritzker, looked at the mess that decades of “progressive” rule has made of Illinois and had an epiphany: OMG, the problem here in Illinois is that it’s not progressive enough! That set him on a quest to out-“progressive” every “progressive” state in the union—well, at least regarding feticide. At a press conference pregnant with symbolism held at Chicago’s Planned Parenthood (PP) office on Tuesday, Pritzker issued this proclamation:

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I’m proud to declare under my administration, the State of Illinois will be the most progressive state in the nation when it comes to guaranteeing the right to choose for every single woman…. And today, I’m proud to sign an executive order that will further protect and expand the right to choose in Illinois.

Someone just arriving from Mars may wonder about the odd construction of those sentences. They might ask, “Right to choose what?” A translator would then explain that Pritzker was using a script written by the denizens of the Upside Down. For those who are unfamiliar, the Upside Down is “a dimension that is a dark reflection or echo of our world. It is a place of decay and death. A plane out of phase. A place of monsters. It is right next to you and you don’t even see it.” Those denizens are the monsters of Planned Parenthood, and the “choice” they and Pritzker avoid identifying is the choice to have one’s offspring offed.

Pritzker knew it would be challenging to follow in the colossal footsteps of that colossal failure Pinocchio Rauner who became the first governor in the country to mandate public-funding of abortion. Pritzker knew he had to do something BIG to capture the hearts and wallets of those who celebrate human slaughter and shout the killings of their children, like Amelia Bonow, seen here indoctrinating children in a lighthearted discussion of the absolute, unrestricted right to abortion:

In the service of his morally disordered fan-base, Pritzker signed an executive order to ensure that all state insurance policies are quickly up to snuff in ensuring that women can snuff out their babies on the public dime.

Americans must disabuse themselves of the notions that killing humans is healthcare and that PP is deeply invested in providing mammograms. In an recent interview, PP president, Dr. Leana Wen, who absurdly claims there is “no more important organization than Planned Parenthood,” shared that,

The last thing I would want is people to get the impression that we are backing off of our core services…. What we will always be here to do is provide abortion access… it’s who we are.”

While everyone is aware of PP’s body-snatching-for-profit business, few remain aware that “Planned Parenthood is one of the largest sources in the US of transgender healthcare.” According to The Guardian,

[Planned Parenthood’s] centers use a newer model for gender transitioning that gives the patient input on whether to start their transition, rather than turning the decision over entirely to a psychiatrist. Some clinics have staff with detailed knowledge of how to update driver’s licenses, passports and social security cards to reflect someone’s name and gender.

Perhaps that’s another reason for J.B. Pritzker’s personal and political investment in PP. Who can forget his first cousin James/”Jennifer” Pritzker. Since not everyone who wants to masquerade as the opposite sex is a billionaire, maybe J.B. thinks the public should pay for their chemically and surgically constructed flesh costumes as well. If he’s willing to use public money to destroy the tiny bodies of young humans, why not use public money to destroy the bodies of bigger, older humans?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo also used the shameful occasion of the 46^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to sign into law a bill that guarantees the legal right of women to have their offspring killed in the womb without restrictions until 24 weeks of pregnancy and to have their offspring killed up until birth if the “health” of a woman is deemed at risk or the baby is “not viable.” Prior to the passage of this law, New York—which legalized abortion in 1970, three years prior to Roe—has had a law on the books that “defined homicide as ‘conduct which causes the death of a person or an unborn child with which a female has been pregnant for more than 24 weeks.’”

New York mothers now have a legal right to have their babies killed for virtually any reason one day prior to their  birth day. One day after birth, such a killing would be murder. Nowhere in America do we permit the non-voluntary killing of terminally ill humans, so we shouldn’t permit the non-voluntary killing of 40-week-old “non-viable” humans.

Alaska, Colorado, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont have no restrictions on late-term abortions, and now New York joins the ranks of the 23 other states that permit abortions up until birth days if the non-defined “health” of the mother is deemed at risk by preventing the killing of her baby. “Health” includes factors pertaining to well-being, including physical, emotional, psychological, and familial. In other words, anyone who wants an abortion can get one in these states.

The product of conception between two humans is inarguably a human. Slowly, over decades, proponents of the legal right to kill humans in the womb have been forced to abandon their intellectually untenable early claim that the unborn were mere clumps of cells. Feticide-advocates now admit that humans in the womb are, indeed, human. What they say now is that, well, yes, it is a human but it’s not a person because essential to personhood are some abilities. One’s person-ness is constituted not by what one is but by what one can do. But if that’s the case, then the whole foundation for the Leftist “social justice” project is threatened. As philosophy professor  Francis Beckwith writes,

For if human ability (or achievement) is the sine qua non [i.e., something essential] of an individual’s right to life, then it is difficult to explain why we shouldn’t abandon the idea of human equality, since all our abilities come in degrees at every stage of human development.

If our moral status as persons with unalienable rights depends solely on our abilities—rather than on our existence as humans—then on what basis can we argue for the importance of equality in human affairs? To “progressives,” ability—a continually shifting phenomenon—precedes and determines personhood and, therefore, the rights conferred by personhood. According to the pro-abortion ideology, all humans are not equal. Equality based on humanness alone does not exist. I guess a panel of personhood judges is going to have to evaluate human worth and award those coveted and hard-to-earn rights. Woe to those who, once deemed persons, lose cognitive or physical abilities.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pritzker-Recording-3.mp3

Save the Date!!!

On Saturday, March 16, 2019, the Illinois Family Institute will be hosting our annual Worldview Conference. This coming year, we will focus on the “transgender” revolution. We already have commitments from Dr. Michelle Cretella, President of the American College of Pediatricians; Walt Heyer, former “transgender” and contributor to Public Discourse; Denise Schick, Founder and Director of Help 4 Families, and daughter of a man who “identified” as a woman; and Doug Wilson, who is a Senior Fellow of Theology at New Saint Andrews College in Moscow, Idaho, and pastor at Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho .

The Transgender Ideology:
What Is It? Where Will It Lead? What is the Church’s Role?
Click here for more information!

IFI is asking for help from supporters in moving forward an important lawsuit against the state of Illinois. In light of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers in California (NIFLA v. Becerra) and with the encouragement of IFI and others, Mauck & Baker, a Chicago-based law firm committed to protecting religious liberty, is considering a lawsuit against the Illinois law that bans counseling for children and teens who experience unwanted same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria.

Background

The plaintiffs in the NIFLA case (i.e., pro-life crisis pregnancy centers) sued the state of California, which had passed the FACT Act requiring all crisis pregnancy centers in defiance of their beliefs to “notify women that California provides free or low-cost services, including abortions, and give them a phone number to call.” The pregnancy centers sued the state, lost, and then appealed that decision to the radical 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against the pregnancy centers, claiming the state has the right to regulate “professional speech.” The NIFLA plaintiffs appealed the 9^th Circuit Court’s decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the pregnancy centers. Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the majority said,

Some Courts of Appeals have recognized “professional speech” as a separate category of speech that is subject to different rules…. But this Court has never recognized “professional speech” as a separate category of speech subject to different rules. Speech is not unprotected merely because it is uttered by professionals. 

The appellate court decisions to which Justice Thomas referred included two cases (Pickup v. Brown and King v. Governors of New Jersey) in which state laws banning “sexual orientation change efforts” were challenged.

Lawsuit against Illinois

The argument made by Justice Thomas provides a strong legal rationale for challenging the bill Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law in 2015 banning counseling for minors who experience unwanted same sex attraction or gender dysphoria, euphemistically named the “Youth Mental Health Protection Act.” This law was based on the false assumptions that “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” (i.e., subjective, internal feelings about one’s objective, immutable biological sex) are fixed and unchangeable—assumptions that are disputed even by many in the “LGBTQ” community.

Mauck & Baker believes this law violates the speech rights of mental health professionals in Illinois and is considering a lawsuit to restore to mental health providers their full complement of First Amendment protections. And that’s where IFI supporters come in.

We need plaintiffs, and they need financial and prayer support. If you know any mental health providers who have been unable to counsel minors with unwanted same- sex attraction or gender dysphoria due to Illinois’ unconstitutional, anti-autonomy, anti-choice law, please have them contact Mauck & Baker by calling (312) 726-1243 or by via email HERE. Please share with them that plaintiffs will remain anonymous. The promise of anonymity is desirable because of the vindictiveness of the powerful and oppressive “LGBTQ” community.

The plaintiffs also need funding for attorney fees and expert testimony about the harms inflicted by such unconstitutional bans. This is a critically important lawsuit, which we hope will serve as a model for states, cities, and counties with similar unconstitutional laws (i.e., New Jersey, California, Oregon, Vermont, New Mexico, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Nevada, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, 40 cities, and 2 counties). Click HERE to DONATE to this important cause.

There are parents across the state in desperate need of proper counseling for their children who suffer from sexual confusion, sometimes caused by sexual abuse. This need is growing because of the pervasive promulgation of the false and destructive “LGBTQ” ideology that has eradicated the stigma associated with immoral sexual acts, poisoned the minds of children with perverse images, lured children into all manner of sexual experimentation, and provided a distorted lens though which children are misinterpreting normal human experiences. Compassionate people who care about the suffering of others—especially children—and who care about truth, must help these parents and children get the care they need.

Please help IFI, Mauck & Baker, professionals who want to counsel, and children and teens who want and need compassionate and sound counseling.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Lawsuit-Against-State-of-Illinois-Unconstitutional-Ban-on-Counseling-for-Minors.mp3

Many will see the proposal outlined in my previous article as a ridiculous fantasy and politically impossible. To them I’d say that almost everything is politically impossible until it is made politically possible. Selling a plan will be hard work, so we will need leaders with a genuine work ethic to start the process. (They can learn that political work ethic by watching President Donald Trump.)

You know what’s already politically possible and, in fact, quite easy? Bowing to the powers of the government unions, keeping the public in the dark about just how bad things are, and allowing the state to go forward into bankruptcy. Don’t doubt me on this: bankruptcy is in our future. That has been my view for many years, but I do have to thank Mark Glennon of Wirepoints for bringing this to my attention at a recent press conference:

William Isaac knows insolvency when he sees it, and how to deal with it. As Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from 1981 to 1985, he was on the forefront of the banking crisis at the time. He founded The Secura Group, a leading consulting firm in financial regulation, and is a respected voice in the world of finance.

Bankruptcy, not just for Chicago, but for Illinois as well, he says.

“The city and the state should act now to restructure their liabilities and put the fiscal mess behind them. This can be accomplished by utilizing Chapter 9 and other tools Congress just gave Puerto Rico,” wrote Isaac in an opinion piece published Thursday in The Bond Buyer.

Tax increases and spending cuts won’t work, he wrote:

In the short run tax increases can partly bridge the deficits, but even this benefit will prove pyrrhic. Recent tax increases have already made the state and the city less competitive venues. As for expenditures, there’s still fat that can be cut from the budget, but it’s difficult to see this making more than a dent.

Why is his opinion a watershed? He’s the first major financial figure to outright call for bankruptcy. Others have said to start thinking about it or that it might be needed eventually — for Chicago. Pass the needed federal legislation now, says Isaac. Federal legislation would be needed to allow a whole state to file for bankruptcy. “Once a financial mess of the first order is at hand, as is the case with Chicago and Illinois, it can be far better to act decisively by restructuring rather than prolonging the pain.”

The above is from an article from almost two years ago. (Wirepoints is excellent. Readers should sign up for their email newsletter.)

Here is the simple and easy-to-remember order of upcoming events that could save our state:

1.)  Bruce Rauner loses and J.B. Pritzker wins and finds out there is no money to fund all his promises. (Of course, J.B. already knows that, right? He can’t be that uninformed, right?)

2.)  Republicans privately fund what Jeanne Ives couldn’t get publicly funded last year—a serious study of how we can tax ourselves in a sane manner here in Illinois. This study need not be expensive or take long to accomplish. Let’s look at all those states that manage to have schools and police officers without taxing people out of their homes.

3.)  “Big and bold” becomes how Republican legislators and candidates think and act and the GOP starts winning more elections.

4.)  Illinois fiscal reality is reckoned with, and the causes of the current mess aren’t kicked down the road any longer.

Tax reform. School choice. Taxpayers freed from funding exorbitant pensions that now eat up 20-25 percent of the state budget. (Private sector companies have been getting out of the pension business for decades. It’s time for government to follow their lead.) Bankruptcy. Illinois stops being a national laughing stock and instead gets a fresh start. And families and jobs move here instead of away.

Laugh if you want, but William Isaac nailed it: “Once a financial mess of the first order is at hand, as is the case with Chicago and Illinois, it can be far better to act decisively by restructuring rather than prolonging the pain.”

For up-to-the minute news, action alerts, coming events and more you can now sign up for IFI Text Alerts!

Stay in the loop by texting “IFI” to 555888 or click here to enroll right away.

Click HERE to donate to IFI

As many readers are aware, Illinois families and jobs have been fleeing the state in record numbers in recent years due to the heavy tax burden. It’s not just time for a change in Illinois tax policy, it’s time for a revolution.

If conservatives ever want to win majorities in the General Assembly and elect an effective governor, they have to start thinking big and getting bold.

Should Bruce Rauner lose in November, it’ll be fresh start time for the beleaguered Illinois Republican Party. That’s not a bad place to be for a political party in a state that is as dysfunctional as Illinois.

Number one on almost everyone’s list of complaints is the property tax system Illinoisans currently labor under. Talking about “freezes,” as the Illinois Policy Institute’s Austin Berg explains, is not a solution when so many homeowners are under water in their mortgages. People can’t afford the taxes now. Freezing it doesn’t change that.

The only real solution is for property taxes to be reduced — big time. Not a little here or a little there. And that reduction cannot happen with the current system.

You can blame your local governing bodies all you want (and they certainly deserve a lot of blame), but they all answer to Springfield. The only way for Illinois tax law to be changed is for the General Assembly to pass legislation and have the governor sign it.

Obviously, Democrats are not going to do this. They obey their biggest client, government employee unions. And those unions know the best way to fill their pots with gold is to legally shake down every homeowner in the state.

Change will only come when conservative state office holders and candidates find their courage and start selling one or more serious tax reform plans to Illinois voters.

Several questions rightfully follow.

First, where will the money come from if it’s not legally swiped from property owners? The answer to that question is found on that map above — you can read about it here. States with substantially lower property taxes find a way to fund schools, police and fire departments, libraries, etc. If they can do it, Illinois can do it.

Second, can enough money be raised in alternative ways to fund so many bloated local governments or government employee pension funds? The answer to that is no. I have two simple proposals that will instantly provide plenty of revenue to fund government at all levels.

Number one is total school choice. The tax dollars follow the student to the school of the parents’ choice. Illinois government-run schools have almost no competition, and until they get some, they will continue to run up costs, debt and unfunded liabilities for current and future taxpayers.

Number two is for the government employee pension systems to be separated from the taxpayers. Forget that stupid clause in the Illinois state constitution and the Illinois State Supreme Court. Neither have the power to tax, nor the ability to make the impossible possible. All those pensions will never be paid — it is mathematically impossible.

Local government consolidation should be a third step, but that’s too boring of a topic to get into here. The Illinois Policy Institute has an excellent set of ideas that can be found here.

There are far more property taxpayers in Illinois than there are government employees. Conservatives can win a majority of them with a well-thought out and effectively sold plan to reform the entire Illinois tax system. There will also be plenty of over-burdened Independents and Democrats ready to support such a plan.

As I said, think big and get bold.

Up next: Illinois is Insolvent and it is Time to Admit it.

Image credit: Tax Foundation.

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-and, please-

The Illinois General Assembly is winding up its work for the 2018 Spring session and will try to adjourn for the summer by Thursday, May 31st. That means that things could move very quickly over the next six days. We will try to keep you posted on the issues that concern you and your family. (As a result, you may get multiple email alerts next week.)

Even though the state of Illinois is on the brink of bankruptcy, various news reports suggest that state lawmakers are making progress toward the constitutional requirement of passing a balanced budget. Of course, the budget continues irresponsible spending and does little to address Illinois’ massive pension problem or the $8 billion of unpaid bills, which has accrued $1.14 billion in late fees.

To put this in perspective, the state expects approximately $37 billion in revenue in the 2019 fiscal year, which begins on the first of June.

A major concern with this budget has to do with the new mandate to require Illinois citizens to pay for elective abortions through state Medicaid and state employee health insurance plans.

Yes, this is the funding aspect of HB 40 which was signed into law by Governor Bruce Rauner last year. This wicked new law removes all prohibitions on using tax dollars for abortions under Medicaid and removes the ban on state employees’ insurance policies paying for abortions. Since this legislation did not contain specific funding appropriation, payment for elective abortions will come out of state Medicaid and health insurance funding.

During floor debate last year, Illinois State Representative Peter Breen (R-Lombard) warned his colleagues that HB 40 may cost taxpayers up to $60 million per year to kill an additional 10,000 to 15,000 pre-born human beings. That is in addition to the 40,000 abortions Illinois commits annually on average.

To be clear, we do not yet know how many taxpayer-funded abortions will be committed each year, but we can call upon Springfield lawmakers to vote against any budget bill (and there are multiple) that appropriate tax funds for elective abortions.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative, urging them to reject any budget agreement that uses tax resources to fund abortion.

The working families of Illinois have no fiscal or moral obligation to provide the abortion industry with resources to destroy our innocent and defenseless humans.

Since the vast majority of Illinois voters have been historically against using their tax dollars for abortion, it would be wise for pro-life advocates across the state to speak out loudly (but politely) now. Moreover, we must continue to work to convince legislators at every level of government of the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.

IFI depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

-and, please-

Back in the 1990s, Illinois conservatives watched as Republican governors cooperated with General Assembly Democrats to lay a foundation for our state’s current fiscal disaster. Today, as 25 percent of the state’s budget goes to paying overly-generous pensions for government employees, some sleepy slow-to-learn Republicans are waking up to the fact that something is amiss.

The good news is that Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker has a plan to solve our state’s revenue problem. Of course, I’m kidding: we don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.

A proposal for a graduated income tax in Illinois is being sold in comical fashion by the comical Center for Tax and Budget Accountability (CTBA) — a group that is never without a plan to take more money from hard-working Illinois families and hand it over to the government.

In Crain’s Chicago Business, liberal reporter Greg Hinz writes that CTBA has found a progressive income tax proposal that would “boost state income $2 billion a year while reducing taxes for 98 percent of individual filers, anyone with an adjusted gross income of less than $300,000 a year.” And if you believe that one, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Last year conservatives warned their fellow Illinoisans that the income tax increase that became law would not be the last tax increase. A progressive income tax wouldn’t be the last either — it would just be the next. When 25 percent of your state’s budget continues to fund retired government employees, while those pension funds are mathematically insolvent, it is foolish to think otherwise. And pension fund “debt” isn’t the only debt the state has amassed.

Wait, there’s more! There will be tax cuts under CTBA’s proposal. And their miracle plan asserts that “raising rates will not induce many higher-income individuals to move out of state”!

Campaigning in 2014, Bruce Rauner was vague about his claim that he could balance the state budget. Wisely, J.B. Pritzker is playing the same game in 2018. Though time will tell if Pritzker foolishly claims, as the CTBA does, that “98 percent of taxpayers would get at least some cut,” while “Those earning more than $300,000 a year would pay more, with rates rising to up to 9.85 percent for those with taxable income of more than $1 million year.”

Tax the rich! Too bad that never works out.

Mark Glennon, the founder and executive editor of Wirepoints, answers the CTBA:

CTBA’s New Progressive Tax Proposal Makes Our Case Against it

We’ve written here often that Illinois can’t count on a progressive income tax to solve much, if anything, in its fiscal crisis. That’s why many proponents, including gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker, won’t get specific about what they spin as the primary solution to our problems, which we wrote about recently here and in Crain’s.

Well, the union-friendly Center for Tax and Budget Accountability just made the case for us.

They released a specific proposal and concluded it would raise just $2 billion in additional revenue. What that really does is prove the futility of thinking tax increases are a way out of our mess.

For some perspective on why $2 billion wouldn’t go far, consider just the additional funding required to meet “adequacy” under the new school funding formula. That alone will consume that $2 billion within six years.

Two billion dollars wouldn’t even cover the shortfall in unpaid interest that effectively accrues on pensions, much less begin to reduce their unfunded liability.

What about the rest of the deficit we’ve been running, which has averaged $11.7 billion over the last ten years, according to the state’s own financial statements?

How about something from the state to relieve suicidal property taxes so many municipalities are levying? Forget it.

And what about gubernatorial candidate J.B Pritzker’s list of promised goodies that so many progressives want?

“I think we all know what’s going on here,” Glennon writes:

Hurray, a tax cut for 98% of us so let’s get that constitutional amendment needed for this progressive tax proposal.” That’s what the CTBA and other proponents are hoping will be the response. After that, it will be, “Oops, wasn’t quite enough of a tax increase so….”

The entire article is worth your time — it can be found here.

In an article, Cole Lauterbach and Greg Bishop answer the question “Do Illinoisans support a progressive tax?” “It depends upon who you ask, they explain:

Jim Long, director of legislative relations for the Chicago-based think tank (the Illinois Policy Institute), said nearly everyone would support a progressive tax without the reality of math.

“It’s like asking a kid if they want ice cream for dinner. Everybody’s going to go for that,” he said. “We put [our poll] through the grinder of economics.”

Meanwhile,

All but one House Republican signed on to House Resolution 975 opposing a progressive tax ballot question, effectively killing the measure for this session. Rep. Jerry Costello became the first Democrat to sign on to a resolution opposing a graduated income tax when he was added as a chief co-sponsor to Rep. David McSweeney‘s similar House Resolution 891.

As always, readers must decide who to believe. Those defending and promoting excessive always-increasing taxes and government spending, or those calling for less of both.

For more on the topic, here are three recent articles of interest:

Taxpayer Victory: Progressive Tax Effectively Dead This Legislative Session

Fifty lawmakers are taking a pledge to fight a progressive income tax in Illinois, denying progressive tax proponents the support needed to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Illinoisans can’t afford another middle-class tax hike. But that’s exactly what proponents of a progressive income tax were seeking this legislative session.

Here is a news item about the first Democrat to publicly oppose a progressive tax hike:

Costello Stands With Taxpayers, Signs Resolution Opposing Progressive Income Tax

Calls to protect Illinoisans from a progressive income tax are now coming from both sides of the aisle in Springfield.

State Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Smithton, signed on as chief co-sponsor to House Resolution 891 on April 27. The resolution was filed in March by state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, and states that Illinois should not scrap its constitutionally protected flat income tax.

Given Illinois’ reckless spending habits, a graduated, or “progressive” income tax is the last thing the state needs. While sold as a tax on the rich, a progressive income tax could have disastrous consequences for middle-class Illinoisans while failing to address the state’s misplaced spending priorities.

The Painful Push for a Progressive Tax in Illinois

Instead of pushing for further tax hikes on tapped-out taxpayers, lawmakers should rally behind a bipartisan effort to limit state spending.

The push for scrapping Illinois’ constitutionally protected flat income tax is greater than ever, with Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker making it a key pillar of his campaign.

A progressive income tax is one of the most foolish policy choices Illinois could enact at a time when residents are experiencing crushing tax burdens, sluggish economic growth and high levels of outmigration.

Take ACTION: Please click HERE to send a message to your state senator and state representative.  Springfield hasn’t earned a right to additional tax resources. They have been utterly reckless with what they already get… more revenue simply will not improve their imprudence. Ask them to vote against any legislative proposal that would increase tax burdens for Illinois citizens. Ask them not to take much needed resources away from responsible family budgets to boost imprudent spending of Illinois government.

Let them know that you oppose any new tax increases when they refuse to cut government waste and bloat. You can also call your lawmakers’ Springfield offices through the Capitol Switchboard at (217) 782-2000.

PLEASE ALSO CALL THE GOVERNOR’S OFFICE at (217) 782-0244 and/or (312) 814-2121.

Why is the Illinois Family Institute publishing another article about state government employee pensions? Because excessive taxes in Illinois are putting a strain on Illinois families — and 25 percent of our state budget pays those overly-generous pensions.

Now, policy experts Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner have provided yet more evidence that “A dramatic rise in pension benefits — not funding shortfalls — caused Illinois’ state pension crisis.”

People like pension expert Bill Zettler pointing out that out a dozen years ago. Whenever I have the opportunity, I mention it as well in my articles. Did people believe Zettler or me? It doesn’t matter — now they must contend with Dabrowski and Klingner.

Their new report is linked here:

Illinois state pensions: Overpromised, not underfunded – Wirepoints Special Report

Wirepoints also has articles about it here:

Illinois politicians: stop guilting taxpayers

Illinois’ pension crisis: Incompetence or malice?

Here is just an excerpt from that last link:

The actual growth in benefits handed out to state workers and retirees since 1987 has dwarfed everything else in the economy, from incomes to inflation to population to the state budget. Multiples times over.

This has all kinds of obvious implications for the economy, growth, outmigration and most importantly, the lives of ordinary Illinoisans.

Pension growth — at nearly 9 percent a year for 30 years — is swamping everything else. It’s no wonder why Illinoisans in so many parts of the state are struggling with high taxes, weak job prospects and stagnant incomes.

Also, Dabrowski calls it corrupt (as I do):

[A] financial mess like this would normally be investigated. Any business that ignores or hides a massive liability for decades will end up on the brink of, or in, bankruptcy.

. . .

If this state were a corporation, think Enron or Worldcom, all kinds of regulators would be sniffing around and asking all kinds of questions. How did lawmakers get this so wrong? Was the extreme growth in benefits due to incompetence or was it purposeful?

“Though the odds of a real investigation happening in Illinois are zilch,” Dabrowski writes, “it’s still worth asking the right questions.”

The answers are easy, as Bill Zettler wrote in his book. The system is a scam, orchestrated and carried out by those betting that taxpayers will never learn just how ridiculously high the retirement benefits are for many saintly teachers, school administrators, union officials, and various other groups employed by our governments.

Illinois continues to make national news due to its inability to do basic math. Here are a few examples:

Rising Tax Rate Can’t End Illinois’ Economic Drought
Yet leading candidates to replace Gov. Bruce Rauner think the only problem with the state’s income tax rate is that it doesn’t go high enough.

In Illinois, Public Pension Funding Cannot Keep up with Pension Benefits’ Growth
Pension benefits have grown six times more that state revenues, 8.4 times more than household incomes, and 9.5 times more than inflation. A major driver of this benefit growth is collective bargaining, which allows government employee unions to negotiate with public officials over pay, benefits, working conditions, and other matters. Unlike in the private sector, where employers have strong incentives to rein in labor costs, public sector unions face relatively little employer resistance to their demands, since both sides in the negotiations are employed by government.

Here are two quick things from Pension Pulse:

The Pension Storm Cometh?
Public employee unions have managed to extract promises from state and local governments that are simply impossible to keep. And those governments have been papering over the extent of their obligations with accounting assumptions that are so overly-optimistic as to be deceptive.

In this article, Pension Pulse touches on the legal wrangling over the pension systems:

The way the courts interpret the pension promise may be legally sound but it is economically absurd.

Who made this “legally sound”? Our AWOL conservative elected officials at all levels, who have failed to bring attention to this kind of excess.

I must say, though, I love the use of the word “absurd.”

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In a fast-moving story, right of conscience cases are moving forward and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here are just two recent headlines from Life News:

October 30: Pregnancy Centers Ask Supreme Court to Overturn California Law Forcing Them to Promote Abortions

October 31: Judge Blocks California Law Forcing Pregnancy Centers to Promote Abortions

In a case that could impact Illinois, Life News reports, “California pregnancy centers could hear any day now if the United States Supreme Court will hear their appeal for relief from a pro-abortion state law”:

Their cases involve a pro-abortion California law that forces pregnancy centers to promote abortions. Deceptively named “The Reproductive FACT Act” by its pro-abortion authors, the 2016 law is the subject of multiple lawsuits. It forces about 200 pregnancy help non-profits to either promote taxpayer-funded abortions through the state or face heavy fines.

Jay Alan Sekulow, an attorney for the American Center for Law and Justice which is representing several pregnancy centers, said the case is about whether California can “compel nonprofit, faith-based, pro-life licensed medical facilities, against their religious convictions and identity to advertise a government program that provides free or low-cost abortions.”

If that sounds familiar, it is, because back in 2016, Governor Bruce Rauner signed SB 1564, which forced

medical facilities and physicians who conscientiously object to involvement in abortions to adopt policies that provide women who ask for abortions with a list of providers “they reasonably believe may offer” them. Two federal laws, known as the Coats-Snowe amendment and the Hyde-Weldon amendment, together prohibit states that receive federal funding from forcing pro-life physicians and entities to refer women for abortion or to make arrangements for their referral. Illinois law also prohibits government from placing burdens on religious conscience without a compelling interest for doing so.

Since then, the Alliance for Defending Freedom, alongside attorneys at Mauck & Baker, filed suit on behalf of Illinois clients to overturn the law.

As IFI reported back in August,

a Federal District Court granted the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and several pro-life pregnancy centers a preliminary injunction against an Illinois law that forces pro-life healthcare professionals to make abortion referrals. The injunction prohibits the State from enforcing the law against healthcare facilities or physicians who have a conscience objection to performing abortions or making abortion referrals.

Attorney Noel W. Sterett told the Illinois Family Institute that the Illinois case is now proceeding through the discovery phase.

Life News reports that whether the challenge to the California law will be heard by the United States Supreme Court might be known as early as Monday.

The Justices have considered the appeals for more than three weeks in their weekly conferences, suggesting at least several of them are inclined to hear the cases.

Recently, lower courts have split on controversies arising from state regulations of medical professions.

The American Center for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow said the law violates “the principle that one cannot be conscripted into acting as a ventriloquist’s dummy for a government message.”

“This law is like forcing the Sierra Club to advocate for oil spills or demanding St. Jude expose their patients to lead poisoning,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, which is representing another group of California pregnancy centers.

“However, this law is actually much more repulsive. While those situations might cause unintended harm, abortion is intended — even specifically designed — to kill.”

Here is Mauck & Baker’s Noel W. Sterett on the topic of the Illinois law:

“The government has no business forcing pro-life doctors and pregnancy care centers in Illinois to operate as referral agents for the abortion industry. A law that targets medical professionals because of their pro-life views and right of conscience is unconstitutional and unethical.”

In the Life News story from October 31, Jay Hobbs reports:

In a major victory for free speech, Riverside County Superior Court Justice Gloria C. Trask ruled late Monday that California must not force pro-life pregnancy medical clinics to post signage promoting state-covered abortions to their clients.

The October 31 Life News article also includes a reference to the above-referenced statewide preliminary injunction on the 2016 Illinois law.

The Illinois Family Institute will continue to monitor the news regarding both the Illinois and California lawsuits.  Please pray for the ultimate demise of these tyrannical laws.

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Despite his commitment to veto HB 40, Governor Bruce Rauner has approved HB 40 — which requires taxpayers to fund the intentional murder of pre-born human beings through Medicaid and state employee insurance plans.  During the 2017 Spring session of the Illinois General Assembly, Democratic lawmakers passed  House Bill 40 on a party line vote (62-55 in the House on April 25th and 33 to 22 in the Senate on May 22nd).

Based on the increased number of new Medicaid recipients in the last 5 years, Illinois taxpayers will now be complicit in the deaths of 10,000 to 15,000 more babies every year. State Rep. Peter Breen (R-Lombard) is on record saying that it may cost us up to $60 million per year!

Since the vast majority of Illinois voters have been historically against using their tax dollars for abortion, it would be wise for pro-life advocates and voters to turn these brazen tactics back against left-wing abortion fanatics – Republican or Democrat. We must continue to speak out and we must be proactive and work to convince legislators at every level of government of the sanctity of life from conception to natural death.

Click HERE to read more from Illinois Family Action, our (501c4) sister organization.

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Great news from the congressional front!

In light of the possibility that Governor Bruce Rauner may renege on his commitment to veto HB 40—the bill that would require taxpayer-funding of abortions through Medicaid and state employee insurance plans through the entire 9 months of pregnancies—and the moral gravity of such an obscene (and costly) requirement, Illinois Family Institute Executive Director David Smith sent a letter to Illinois’ Republican congressmen requesting their help in persuading Governor Rauner to veto HB 40.

Earlier today, U.S. Congressmen Peter Roskam, John Shimkus, Randy Hultgren, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis, Mike Bost, and Darin LaHood sent a letter to Governor Rauner urging him to do just that:

Dear Governor Rauner:

We are writing to convey our deepest concern about House Bill 40 which has been sent to your desk.

This bill would require taxpayers to subsidize abortions for those covered by Medicaid and for those covered by state employee health insurance through the full nine months of pregnancy. This includes painful late-term abortions, even past the point at which some children could survive outside the womb if given appropriate care.  Under HB 40, there is no cap on the number of abortions that could be covered under Medicaid and no cap on the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on these procedures.  Current estimates of cost to the State range from$1.8 million to $21 million.  While Illinois faces a financial crisis, it is unwise to place such a burden on the taxpayers.

Illinois state policy has been consistent with federal protections such as the Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funding for abortion. The Hyde Amendment saves lives – at least 2 million people are alive today thanks to 40 years of Hyde Amendment protections.  This bill is an egregious step away from those protections by requiring public funding for abortions, which will surely result in more lives lost to the tragedy of abortion.

As you have said yourself, this bill wrongfully requires taxpayers to participate in funding abortions. While the political pressure may feel extreme, we respectfully ask you to focus on the underlying issue and not waiver on your commitment to protect taxpayers as well as the most vulnerable members of our community.  We ask you to veto this harmful legislation.

David Smith emphasizes the significance of this letter, particularly in conjunction with the unanimity of opposition to HB 40 among state lawmakers:

This letter to Gov. Rauner is vitally important. The entire Illinois House Republican Caucus and Illinois Senate Republican Caucus are uniformly opposed to HB 40. Now the Illinois Republican Congressional Delegation has weighed in opposing this legislation. I can only hope and pray that this puts tremendous pressure on our Republican Governor to veto this legislation.

I hope and pray other pro-life elected leaders will also speak out. We may not be able to overturn Roe v. Wade yet, but if enough conservatives speak out and overwhelm the governor’s office, we just might protect thousands of babies from the horror of abortion in Illinois.

Though there is a legal right for women to have their offspring killed, such a “right” does not confer on the public an obligation to pay for the deaths of these tiny human beings. In addition, aiding and abetting women in killing their own children is neither just, nor merciful, nor morally defensible.

The dismissively called “social issues” are fundamental cultural issues and crucibles that determine the moral worthiness of a society. Illinois Republican lawmakers deserve our thanks for their support for the lives of humans in the womb.

Will Republican Governor Rauner stand with pro-life, small government lawmakers in Congress and the General Assembly or will he stand with pro-abortion, big government Leftists?

Take ACTION: Click Here to email Governor Bruce Rauner. Urge him to keep his pledge to veto HB 40. Also, please continue to call the governor’s public comment line every day until this is resolved: (217) 782-0244 and (312) 814-2121. 

You can also send Gov. Rauner a message via Twitter: @GovRauner

Read Congressman Peter Roskam’s press release on this issue HERE.

Listen to Laurie read this article in this podcast:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The-Illinois-GOP-Congressional-Caucus-Responds-to-HB-40.mp3

PLEASE consider a financial gift to IFI to sustain our work.
We’ve stood firm for 25 years, work diligently to accomplish our mission to
“boldly bring a biblical perspective to public policy” in Illinois.

If signed into law by Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, HB 40, which passed in both the Illinois House and Senate, will force taxpayers to subsidize abortions for women on Medicaid and for women covered by state employee health insurance.

Feticidal maniacs in Illinois—including lawmakers—are desperate to have Rauner sign this bill into law. They reason that since abortion is legal, the public should subsidize it. Leftists believe all Illinois taxpayers should pay for poor women’s and state employees’ choices to have their unborn children killed. Ironically, while Leftists command that men never express an opinion on abortion, Leftists also say male taxpayers should fund abortion. Word to Leftists:

1.) Those tiny humans growing inside women get half their DNA from men.

2.) The issue of whether the product of conception between two humans is a human with rights is a human rights issue—not exclusively a women’s issue.

3.) There are no criteria that Leftists can manufacture to defend the right of some humans to snuff out the lives of other humans that apply only to incipient human lives. Whether those criteria are intrinsic or extrinsic to humans in the womb, they all can be applied to humans who escaped the torture chamber that the womb has become. Intrinsic criteria such as immature development, dependency status, lack of sentience, or lack of perfection apply to humans outside the womb as well. Extrinsic criteria such as being considered a financial or emotional burden also apply to humans outside the womb.

4.) According to Leftists, men can have wombs, menstruate, become pregnant, and give birth, and, therefore, abortion is a men’s issue.

5.) Using the language of “rights,” feticide-defenders are appealing to the respect Americans have for “negative rights”—also known as liberties—(e.g., the right to vote, assemble, exercise one’s religion, and speak freely), which are not accompanied by any obligation for others to subsidize them. But what feticide-defenders are really suggesting—without explicitly saying—is that women have a “positive right” (i.e., an entitlement) to abortion, which imposes a duty on others to subsidize it. Abortion, however, is not an entitlement, and society has no obligation to pay for women to get them. Neither wanting something; nor really, really wanting something; nor experiencing suffering from not obtaining this desperately desired thing means the public has an obligation to provide it.

7.) We, as a benevolent society, have created safety nets to provide for basic health care for those who are unable to provide for it themselves. No matter how many times feticide-defenders call the killing of incipient human life “health care,” it’s not. Killing human fetuses is neither health care nor reproduction. It’s death facilitation and anti-reproduction. If Leftists want to help poor women and state employees kill their offspring, they have the choice and negative right to do so.

In an editorial appearing in Crain’s Chicago Business, K. Sujata, president and CEO of the Chicago Foundation for Women (CFW), frets about the implications of an HB 40 veto. She worries about the economic interests of pregnant women, many of whom choose to have sex when they can’t afford or don’t want to provide for the needs of humans who may result from their choice to have sex:

HB40 also removes restrictions on reproductive health care coverage that put women’s economic security at risk…. In order for women and their families to achieve full economic security, all women in Illinois must be able to make the important decision of when to start or grow their family.

Do Illinoisans really have a moral obligation to provide for the “full economic security” of state employees? Do Illinoisans really have a moral obligation to pay for the destruction of the tiny family members already growing inside of poor women?

And how does killing humans—including female humans—whose lives are just beginning fulfill this core principle of the Chicago Foundation for Women:

We believe that equality is a universal human right, and we uphold respect and dignity as guiding principles in all our work.

If Leftists really believe that more developed, sentient, able-bodied, and cognitively superior humans have the right to exterminate less-developed and cognitively and physically impaired humans whose self-awareness is diminished or absent, then they are kindred spirits with Princeton University bio-unethicist Peter Singer who makes the same argument but applies it to post-natal humans as well. What possible ethical difference do a few days or few inches of birth canal make in terms of the right to kill?

Remember ten years ago when Hillary Clinton expressed her belief that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare. And by rare, I mean rare“? Northwestern University law professor Andrew Koppelman expressed the same sentiment during a forum at Northwestern Law School several years ago. When I asked why abortion should be rare if incipient human life is so devoid of personhood as to be undeserving of even minimal constitutional protection, he had no answer.

If Leftists really wanted abortion to be rare, they wouldn’t be fighting tooth and nail for the passage of HB 40, which, it is estimated, will result in an additional 15,000 abortions each year at taxpayer expense.

But no one actually believes Leftists care about whether abortion is rare or common. To them destroying human fetuses is no different from excising tumors.

Wombs should be sanctuary spaces and no-kill people shelters where all humans are safe. Governor Rauner should kill HB 40.

Take ACTION: Click Here to email Governor Bruce Rauner. Urge him to keep his pledge to veto HB 40. Also, please continue to call the governor’s public comment line every day until this is resolved: (217) 782-0244 and (312) 814-2121. 

You can also send Gov. Rauner a message via Twitter: @GovRauner

Listen to Laurie read this article in this podcast:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/2Kill-HB-40-Wombs-Should-Be-Sanctuary-Spaces-and-No-Kill-Shelters.mp3

PLEASE consider a financial gift to IFI to sustain our work.
We’ve stood firm for 25 years, work diligently to accomplish our mission to
“boldly bring a biblical perspective to public policy” in Illinois.

The Illinois Family Institute always appreciates when its work is read by more people, and we benefit when others bring attention to our work. Over the years when writing op eds I’ve made mistakes — failed to correct typos or spelling, used the wrong word such as Medicaid when the word should have been Medicare, and cited something as fact that turned out not to be true. Corrections from readers are always welcome…

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about SB 31, legislation that had been amended and shortened, and I failed to catch the updated language.

When Matt Dietrich of Politifact and the Better Government Association sent me an email bringing that error to my attention, I expressed my appreciation to him and made the correction in the article. Days later, Dietrich posted this article about my error, and while he noted my correction, he concludes that what I had written was “FALSE.”

Yes, the words I used from the earlier version of the bill was an error. My calling SB 31 a sanctuary bill was not an error.

Here is some text from an earlier version of SB 31, the “Trust Act”:

Provides that absent a judicial warrant or probable cause of criminal activity, a government official shall not make arrests in the following State-funded facilities or their adjacent grounds: State-funded schools, including licensed day care centers, pre-schools, and other early learning programs; elementary and secondary schools, and institutions of higher education…

This is language from the amended SB 31, which is now state law:

Section 15. Prohibition on enforcing federal civil immigration laws.
(a) A law enforcement agency or law enforcement official
shall not detain or continue to detain any individual solely on the basis of any immigration detainer or non-judicial immigration warrant or otherwise comply with an immigration detainer or non-judicial immigration warrant.
(b) A law enforcement agency or law enforcement official
shall not stop, arrest, search, detain, or continue to detain a person solely based on an individual’s citizenship or immigration status.

The change is merely cosmetic. The original version said a judicial warrant or probable cause of criminal activity would be required for a government official to make an arrest in several enumerated state-funded facilities. In other words, a law enforcement official could not make an arrest based solely on immigration status.

The newer version says that a law enforcement official cannot make an arrest based solely on immigration status, presumably anywhere. Thus, the newer version includes and applies to the state-funded facilities enumerated in the original bill.

Removing the language only made the bill more palatable to establishment politicians and their Leftist allies.

It is not difficult to understand the long-running dream of Leftists to import more future Democratic Party voters from other countries. Some of their most loyal supporters will be those who broke federal law to come here and were then protected by the Democratic Party.

Leftists are talented when it comes to the strategic manipulation of language. Just as centuries-old mainline Christian doctrine is now referred to as “hate,” illegal aliens are referred to as “undocumented immigrants.” Tolerance now means intolerance. The “Affordable Care Act” made health insurance unaffordable for millions of Americans. The “Trust Act” means you can trust that we don’t care if you’re here illegally.

As “blue” as Illinois is, Democratic Party leaders and their supporters know that even here you must be careful with language. And if you alter SB 31 enough, you can even deny it’s a sanctuary bill. Some people are upset that the ruse didn’t work.

The news of Rauner’s signing of SB 31 was covered by both the political left and the right, and the headlines are similar:

The Daily Herald: Rauner to sign immigration bill making Illinois a sanctuary state

Think Progress: Republican governor signs bill to limit collaboration between police and ICE

Reboot Illinois: Rauner signs ‘sanctuary state’ bill into law

Lifezette: Republican Governor Hammered for Embracing State Sanctuary Policy

ABC News: Governor signs law limiting Illinois police on immigration

Fox Illinois Decatur, IL (WRSP): Sanctuary state bill now law

It is common for legislation to evolve. Changes are made not only for material reasons but also for cosmetic reasons. In the evolution of SB 31, the larger aim of the legislation remained constant: hinder state and local law enforcement from participation in enforcing immigration laws, which is the widely accepted definition of a sanctuary city or sanctuary state.

Here was the close of Dietrich’s article:

The Illinois Family Institute said public facilities including schools, colleges and day care centers “will be made into sanctuaries by Bruce Rauner signing SB 31.”

The original version of the bill prohibited police from making arrests in such facilities, but that language was struck from the version passed by the General Assembly. The new bill contains directives that the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police says merely puts into state statute what most departments already practice.

We rate this statement False.

Actually, it is true. The only thing that changed was how the law was worded. My using text from the earlier version of the bill was an unfortunate mistake. That mistake was corrected. Perhaps more people will now understand what constitutes a sanctuary state.

Additional information:

From the National Conference of State Legislatures:

What Is a Sanctuary Policy? While there is no legal definition for sanctuary policies, the term is applied to jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, such as information about immigration status and limiting the length of immigration detainers. Click here to read more.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform:

Sanctuary Policies Across America

The Role of State and Local Enforcement in Immigration Matters and Reasons to Resist Sanctuary Policies — Read the issue brief.

Sanctuary Policy is Bad Public Policy — Read the fact sheet.

Sanctuary Cities: Obstructing Immigration Enforcement — Read the policy analysis.

Join us in Medinah, Illinois, to hear world renowned Christian apologist Ray Comfort. Space is limited, don’t miss this special one time event. Click HERE for more information.

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Left-leaning Governor Bruce Rauner just signed HB 1785 into law, making it even easier than it already is for men and women who pretend to be the opposite sex to acquire falsified birth certificates. HB 1785 passed the Illinois House by a vote of 63-32 on May 25th and was then passed in the Illinois Senate by a vote of 32-22 on the last regular day of session, May 31st.

Gender-pretenders can now acquire birth certificates that falsely identify them as the sex they are not and that falsely state that this identification happened at birth, which it did not.

In signing this absurd and culturally destructive Leftist bill into law, Rauner has reaffirmed what many Illinoisans already know: He doesn’t care about even profoundly important cultural issues that are not directly fiscal matters. In so doing, he also reveals his ignorance.

For decades Illinois has allowed men and women who impersonate the opposite sex to obtain falsified birth certificates by offering proof that they had had surgery—surgery that actually did not change their sex. But now, thanks to “Republican” Governor Rauner, those who renounce their biological sex will be allowed to acquire falsified birth certificates based on nothing more than the word of a mental health “professional” that they’ve been “appropriately” treated. This is both an ethical and political outrage.

Birth certificates are legal and historical documents that record an event that took place at a moment in time. They document the sex of humans as identified by doctors at the moment of their births. With the rare exception of those persons born with intersex disorders, birth certificates accurately record the sex of humans which never changes. Doctors do not assign or impose “genders” on newborns. Doctors identify their sex—which, again, never changes.

The “trans” cult is not merely seeking to enjoin the law to falsify legal and historical documents. In the dystopian wonderland in which “trans” cultists live and move and have their imaginary being, they are redefining “birth certificate.” Without any public discussion, the “trans” cult is surreptitiously seeking to change what birth certificates are and do. “Trans” cultists are implicitly arguing that birth certificates no longer document an objective historical event, and they no longer record an objective fact of human existence.

In the science-denying cultic world that biological-sex rejecters are creating, “birth certificates” are error-ridden, manipulable documents that record the whimsical guesses of authoritarian doctors who prognosticate and then impose “socially constructed arbitrary behaviors, conventions, and expectations” (i.e., “gender” as defined by Leftists) on newborns.

And Rauner has bought these absurdist notions hook, line, and sinker.

Or has he? Does he really believe such absurd notions or does he just not care enough about science, history, legal ethics, and the meaning of objective, immutable biological sex to take a stand?

Either way, his actions signify how foolish he is. This is just one more incremental step in the march toward the eradication of public recognition of sex differences everywhere for everyone, which Rauner seems to view as a public good.

Well, now that “transgender” persons can obtain falsified birth certificates based on their subjective, internal desire to be the opposite sex, there remains no rational reason to prohibit “trans-aged” persons from obtaining falsified birth certificates that reflect their deeply felt, authentic ages.

It’s a brave new world into which we are—with little resistance—being dragged. It’s also craven, depraved, and irrational.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Governor-Rauner-Endorses-Falsified-Birth-Certificates-Abandons-Ethics-and-Science.mp3

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Are you ready for the “greatest cultural revolution in history?”

IFI’s Laurie Higgins was recently interviewed by both John Mauck of Mauck & Baker, LLC, and by Mark Elfstand on his “Let’s Talk” show.  Both programs are on WYLL radio (1160 AM), and can be heard throughout most of the state.

Lawyers for Jesus

In the first interview for a recording of “Lawyers for Jesus Radio,” attorney John Mauck discussed governmental policies regarding LGBTQIA ideology. The conversation began with a discussion of Higgins’ article The “Trans” Ideology Damages Children. In it, Higgins writes:

Social conventions reflect and reinforce the good architecture of sexually differentiated human life. Social conventions for men and women were not created out of whole cloth or manufactured from the fertile imaginations of patriarchal oppressors. They emerged from human nature.

The conversation covers topics such as the mental and physical health risks of hormone therapy or surgery to help a person pretend he’s a she, or she’s a he.

Also discussed is HB 1785, that will make it legal to falsify a birth certificate. That bill is currently on Governor Bruce Rauner’s desk. The interview gave time to the topic of the absurdity of “gender fluidity,” the end game of those pushing for gender ideology, and a call to action.  Listen to it here:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/338878069″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”50%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]

Let’s Talk!

In the most recent interview by Mark Elfstand, he deftly covered a variety of issues in about ten minutes.

He began by asking about the article Higgins penned Christians Must Exit Government Schools where she writes:

Christian parents charged by God to train up their children in the way they should go have no biblical warrant for placing their children all day, all year in schools that refuse to recognize the immutability and profound meaning of sexual differentiation, particularly as it relates to modesty and privacy.

Since few Christian parents or teachers are doing anything to counter the advance of Leftist gender ideology, Higgins said, parents have to get their kids out of schools that “teach them that to be loving, compassionate, and inclusive, they must lie by calling gender-pretending peers by opposite-sex pronouns, and they must be willing to relinquish their privacy.”

Other topics and articles discussed include the reaction to the above article, including an exchange Laurie Higgins had with people at the Chicago Tribune. Also touched on was the morally bankrupt Southern Poverty Law Center including IFI among its list of “hate groups.”

Check it out:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/337838575″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”80%” height=”100″ iframe=”true” /]

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