Just in time for LGBTQ Pride Month, the Illinois Senate passed House Bill 2590 requiring county clerks to issue new marriage certificates upon request to reflect legal name changes for transgender and non-binary individuals. It passed by a vote of 82 to 28 in the House on April 22, 2021 and by a vote of 49 to 5 in the Illinois Senate on May 28, 2021.

State Senator Sara Feigenholtz (D-Chicago), the sponsor of the bill, also sponsored Senate Bill 139 which passed in both the Illinois House and Illinois Senate a few weeks earlier and allows the removal of “gendered” language from marriage certificates. This proposal passed out of the Illinois Senate on April 21, 2021 by a vote of 44 to 13, and out of the Illinois House on May 19, 2021 by a vote of 78 to 30.

However, Feigenholtz didn’t believe SB 139 went far enough. “Non-binary and transgender individuals should be able to have a marriage license that lists their correct name,” she said.

Hence, the introduction of HB 2590, which bars any additional markings alluding to the individual’s former name from appearing on the new marriage certificates. The bill only allows county clerks can only change names on marriage certificates when the marriage occurred in Illinois and legal documentation of the name change is provided.

People in the nonbinary and transgender communities along with their allies’ say the use of their former names, called “deadnaming,” is offensive and causes them trauma. That is why Feigenholtz and others say they pushed for HB 2590s passage.

Another bill, HB 9, also supported by the LGBTQ community, narrowly missed passage in the spring legislative session. HB 9 would have required the State Registrar of Records to establish a new birth certificate when receiving a signed statement (called self-attestation) that an individual has undergone treatment for the purpose of gender transition. Under current law, a treating doctor must sign off on the change.

While the bill passed in the Illinois House by a vote of 66 to 45, it failed to pass by one vote in the Illinois Senate and was placed on postponed consideration. The bill can be brought back up for another vote at any time the Senate convenes during this session.

House Bill 9 was introduced by State Representative Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview) who describes it as aligning “with the requirements for driver’s licenses in Illinois that do not require a doctor’s note.”

Proponents of the bill claim the change is needed to aid transgender and binary persons secure vital documents even if they have not transitioned medically. So, if the bill were to pass, an individual would only have to state that they are different gender to have their gender changed on their birth certificate. No medical proof of medical intervention would be necessary.

Capitol News Illinois (CNI) reported Myles Brady Davis, press secretary and director of communication at Equality Illinois, told a House Committee, “Access to a birth certificate is the first step in securing important identity documents needed for many aspects of daily life.”

Illinois state lawmakers who serve on the Human Services Committee should know that you support these 5 Pro-Life Bills and oppose the radical birth certificate bill!

When a bill is scheduled for a committee hearing, citizens can file witness slips in support or opposition. Scroll down for instructions.

The following bills are scheduled to be heard in the Human Services Committee on March 9th. Please file witness slips for all of them. It only takes a few minutes for each slip and your name will be included among those who supported/opposed the bills.

They are all great Pro-Life bills, except for one. Please make note that HB 9 is a bill that we ask you to oppose.

Ultrasound Opportunity Act – HB 683 is sponsored by Paul Jacobs (R-Carbondale). It requires that a woman seeking an abortion be offered the opportunity to view a live ultrasound of her unborn baby before going through with the abortion.
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in support of HB 683.

Born Alive Infant Protection Act – HB 338 is sponsored by Mark Batinick (R-Plainfield). It declares that a child born alive as the result of an abortion be fully recognized as a human person and accorded immediate protection under the law.
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in support of HB 338.

Repeal of Taxpayer Funding of Abortion – HB 783 is sponsored by Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg).
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in support of HB 783.

Amends the Reproductive Health Act – HB 791 is sponsored by Patrick Windhorst (R-Harrisburg). It bans abortion after 20 weeks except in the case of a medical emergency.
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in support of HB 791.

Partial Birth Abortion Ban – HB 827 is sponsored by Adam Niemerg (R-Teutopolis).
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in support of HB 827.

In addition to these 5 great pro-life bills listed above, please also consider speaking out in opposition to this proposal to legalize fraud:

OPPOSE THIS BILL: HB 9, sponsored by Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview), allows a person to change gender on their birth certificate.
ACTION: Click HERE to file a witness slip in opposition to HB 9.

Witness Slip Instructions:

Section I. Enter your name, address, city and zip code. You can leave Firm/Business and Title blank. If it won’t allow you to leave them black, enter NA.

Section II. Leave it blank if you are not representing a group, etc.

Section III. Check that you are a Proponent (except for HB 9).

Section IV. Unless you are filing a written statement, select Record of Appearance Only.

Lastly, agree to the terms of agreement by checking the box.

Click Create (Slip).

Thank you for taking time to let these legislative committees hear from pro-life/pro-family conservatives in Illinois!

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please consider a tax-deductible donation to sustain our endeavors.  

Your support makes a difference!

Left-wing extremists are in an uproar, barely able to contain their hostility towards our values! What did we do to offend them? We — like so many others — compared today’s current abortion holocaust to the Nazi Holocaust. (Franklin Graham and Pope Francis recently made similar comparisons.)

In a recent IFA website article, we rightly compared the past slaughter of 6 million Jewish people in Nazi Germany to the current slaughter of 61 million unborn babies whose lives are being ended by abortion daily.  “Life unworthy of life, ” was the mindset of the Nazis toward the Jewish people and, according to the Nazis, they had no right to live.  A similar mindset obscures the thinking of progressive Leftists who rationalize unborn human slaughter!

Now, in the wake of full-term abortion extremism in New York, Virginia, and now even Springfield — where radical lawmakers are working harder than ever to give Illinois the distinction of having the most radical abortion laws in the land — this fair and legitimate comparison has left-wing activists on their heels!

In response, these anti-life lawmakers are now attempting to abuse the power of the government to quash Illinois Family Institute’s work, speech and presence in Springfield! In an official joint resolution (HJR 55), anti-life lawmakers are calling for our right to lobby at the Capitol to be revoked, and for the Illinois State Police to investigate us for “hate speech.” Additionally, because of the tremendously successful Pro-Life Life Lobby Day on March 20th, these same lawmakers are calling “for a review of security procedures in the Capitol Complex…with the review and implementation of needed updates…”

It appears their intention is to quash First Amendment right to assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances for those who dissent from their radical policy agenda.

Don’t let them silence our pro-life voices!
They are out to destroy us, but we won’t back down!

In the next few weeks, Illinois Family Institute plans to hand-deliver thousands of petitions to State Representatives Bob Gordon (D-Highwood) and Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz (D-Glenview), the chief sponsors of HJR 55, and demand that they immediately stop this unprecedented tyrannical action!

Your Help is Urgently Needed! Please sign the Petition to Defend Illinois Family Institute from these outrageous anti-life, Leftist hate speech claims, and return it to us right away!

Don’t let them silence our pro-life voices! 
Help IFI continue to lead the fight to stop full term abortions in Illinois!

Take ACTION: Click HERE to sign the petition against HJR 55!

Time is of the essence, so please encourage your family and friends to sign the petition right away!

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Last week ten lawmakers from the Jewish Caucus in Springfield sponsored a resolution condemning Illinois Family Action (IFA) and Illinois Family Institute (IFI) for engaging in what they call “hate speech,” because IFA compared the abortion holocaust to the Jewish Holocaust. Titled “Illinois Family Action-Hate Speech” (HJR 55), the resolution uses subjective hyperbole, disreputable sources and unreasonable inferences that make the alleged offense seem overtly sinister.

If you want an exhaustive, well-argued refutation of the resolution, read “Left-Wing Partisans File Stunning Resolution Against Illinois Family.” HJR 55 is stunning for all the reasons that author Laurie Higgins identifies but also because of its glaring omission: any mention of abortion, the topic of the article that started it all.

There are always hazards when invoking the Holocaust, not least of which is overstating the parallel to a current situation. But that’s not the case here. It is indisputable that the Nazis dehumanized an entire class of human beings defined solely by their ethnoreligious heritage, then rounded them up and shipped them off to be exterminated with lethal efficiency in death camps across Europe.

It’s also indisputable that abortion providers—most notably Planned Parenthood—are also in the extermination business. They and their enablers—most notably regressive Democrats, who increasingly champion infanticide—have dehumanized an entire class of human beings defined solely by their stage of development in situ.

One significant difference between the Jewish Holocaust and our modern holocaust is that abortion clinics don’t have to round up babies and send them to a centralized abortion mill. Instead, Planned Parenthood has conveniently dotted the country with more than 600 of their own little death camps for easy access. It’s the children’s own mothers who—whether they gleefully “shout their abortion” or enter a clinic in desperation—play the role of Hitler’s Schutzstaffel.

The parallels between the two holocausts, made so often as to be in danger of becoming cliché, are strong and obvious—except to the willfully blind.

So why the extraordinary step of a resolution in the Illinois House condemning the comparison? Just this: by making the comparison, Illinois Family conferred personhood on the pro-choicers’ blob of tissue. IFI re-humanized them. The resolution’s assertion that IFI is “recklessly comparing those who disagree with their extreme agenda to Nazis” can only be true if babies aren’t human.

The resolution is a naked halogen bulb blinding observers to their real objective, which is to intimidate and shame IFI into submission. Accusations of unspecified threats, anti-Semitism, “hate speech,” “bigotry,” “homophobia” and “extreme rhetoric” are followed by a call for “a formal investigation” into such speech and asking the Secretary of State to suspend IFI’s lobbying credentials.

One of the resolution’s co-sponsors, State Representative Jonathan Carroll (D-Northbrook), took to Twitter to express his outrage. “This is hate speech and I demand a retraction. Comparing Democrats to Nazis to to [sic] promote your agenda is disgraceful.” He was later quoted as saying, “We call on the Illinois State Police to do a full investigation of these incidents.”

To summarize: the all-Democrat Jewish Caucus of the Illinois House of Representatives has circled the wagons and called for reinforcements because they don’t like a commonly-used analogy comparing the killing of 61,000,000 babies (and counting) to the killing of 6,000,000 Jews—and allegedly fear that they will now be the victims of violence. To address the threat, they are summoning the power of the state to crush IFI.

How very Hitler-esque.

Meanwhile, the State of Illinois is circling the drain. We are the least fiscally solvent state, but pay the highest state and local taxes in the country; we are the third most corrupt state in the nation and boast the worst-in-nation pension crisis; we’re unlikely to successfully weather a recession, we have one of the worst home foreclosure rates in the nation, and we lead the country in number of residents fleeing the state.

If regressives get their way, they’ll also bestow on Illinois the distinction of having the most radical abortion laws in the land. (We’re number one! We’re number one!)

Instead of wasting their time and taxpayer money weaponizing the state to kick around a tiny pro-family organization that enjoys First Amendment protections, how about getting busy fixing the national embarrassment that the land of Lincoln has become?

Instead of indoctrinating five freshman legislators on the finer points of virtue signaling (“Hate has no home here,” right, Rep. Sara Feigenholtz?), how about challenging Jonathan Carroll, Daniel Didech, Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, Yehiel Kalish, Karina Villa, Anna Moeller and Bob Morgan to balance a budget by reining in spending? Instead of demonstrating knee jerk outrage, how about demanding an investigation into how the most corrupt big city in the nation let Jussie “O.J.” Smollett skate after slandering half the country’s citizens and lying about it?

Regressives and their junior commies in the Illinois House have more pressing issues to deal with than some petty disagreement about whether legal abortion is like the Jewish Holocaust or not. Judging by the March 20 turnout to protest the proposed abortion legislation that “overtaxed Capitol security,” there are a lot of people who agree that it is.

The Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote, “Woe to those who call good evil and evil good, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20). Jewish legislators should understand better than anyone the evil of taking innocent life. Rescind the resolution and do what you were elected to do: rescue Illinois.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact your state senator and representative to ask them to reject this dangerous resolution. Ask them to vote down HJR 55 and the unprecedented and tyrannical action being taken by extreme partisans in the Illinois General Assembly.

Read more:

Left-Wing Partisans File Stunning Resolution Against Illinois Family (Laurie Higgins)

Truth and Love or Hate? (Rev. Calvin Lindstrom)

SPOTLIGHT: Illinois’ Abortion Holocaust (Podcast)

A bold voice for pro-family values in Illinois!

Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.