Written by Austin Scott Davies

Article II Section 1 of the Illinois Constitution provides that “[t]he legislative, executive and judicial branches are separate. No branch shall exercise powers properly belonging to another. Article VI Section 1 provides that “[t]he judicial power is vested in a Supreme Court, an Appellate Court and Circuit Courts.”

With the passage of Senate Bill 1169 (SB 1169), Governor JB Pritzker and his cronies have attempted to usurp the exclusive power of the judicial branch of government.

To fully appreciate what Illinois Democrats have done here, let’s first examine the Health Care Right of Conscience Act. The legislators who passed The Health Care Right of Conscience Act (“HCRCA”) included within it a policy statement so that it would be abundantly clear to all Illinoisans what their intent was. The pertinent part reads,

The General Assembly finds and declares that people and organizations hold different beliefs about whether certain health care services are morally acceptable. It is the public policy of the State of Illinois to respect and protect the right of conscience of all persons who refuse to obtain, receive or accept, or who are engaged in, the delivery of, arrangement for, or payment of health care services and medical care whether acting individually, corporately, or in association with other persons; and to prohibit all forms of discrimination.

The HCRCA prohibits any discrimination against those refusing to receive health care services that are contrary to his or her conscience. It states as follows:

It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, transfer, staff appointment, hospital, managed care entity, or any other privileges, because of such person’s conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.

Discrimination by employers or institutions is specifically prohibited again in another part of the act:

It shall be unlawful for any public or private employer, entity, agency, institution, official or person, including but not limited to, a medical, nursing or other medical training institution, to deny admission because of, to place any reference in its application form concerning, to orally question about, to impose any burdens in terms or conditions of employment on, or to otherwise discriminate against, any applicant, in terms of employment, admission to or participation in any programs for which the applicant is eligible, or to discriminate in relation thereto, in any other manner, on account of the applicant’s refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer, assist or participate in any way in any forms of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.

Now, let’s turn to why the HCRCA has been put in the spotlight. Governor Pritzker, who has been attempting to rule the State of Illinois by executive fiat since the spring of 2020 under the guise of COVID-19 mitigation measures, has been recently losing in court.

The governor’s “mandate” that employers require vaccination or testing of all employees has been enforced voluntarily by many public and private employers, despite there being nothing in Illinois law to provide for enforcement of these executive orders. As a result, the HCRCA has been successfully used to obtain restraining orders against those mandating COVID-19 related mRNA injections and testing for COVID-19, without exemption for those who object to receiving that health care based on their moral beliefs.

All Illinois laws that require other vaccines provide for exemptions based either on religion or on proving that you have natural immunity from already contracting whatever disease the inoculation is intended to prevent. Pritzker’s “mandates” are different, because there are no exemptions provided for in state law when an employer requires you to receive a COVID-19 shot, and never has there been a requirement that otherwise healthy people receive a test for a disease that they have no suspicion of having in order to coerce someone to receive an unwanted vaccine. For those reasons, the HCRCA’s protections have been the last line of defense against these tyrannical mandates.

That’s why the governor, through his cronies in the legislature, tried to rush through SB 1169 during the fall veto session. In less than 24 hours, from October 25-26, the first (HFA 2) amendment to the original shell bill, which is similar to what was ultimately passed, received over 50,000 witness slips in opposition.

On October 27, the bill was amended again by Illinois House Floor Amendment 3 with no substantive changes, likely so that it could be sent to the Illinois Senate to concur without having all those opposing witness slips attached. Constituents took notice of this maneuver, and within only a couple of hours filed tens of thousands of witness slips in opposition to SB 1129 as amended by HFA 3.

The full text of SB 1169 reads:

It is not a violation of this Act for any person or public official, or for any public or private association, agency, corporation, entity, institution, or employer, to take any measures or impose any requirements, including, but not limited to, any measures or requirements that involve provision of services by a physician or health care personnel, intended to prevent contraction or transmission of COVID-19 or any pathogens that result in COVID-19 or any of its subsequent iterations. It is not a violation of this Act to enforce such measures or requirements. This Section is a declaration of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment. Accordingly, this Section shall apply to all actions commenced or pending on or after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 102nd General Assembly. Nothing in this Section is intended to affect any right or remedy under federal law.

It may not be readily apparent what the governor is trying to do here. It might appear that through this bill, the legislature was amending the HCRCA to carve out an exception that would remove its protection of people’s right to object based on their conscience to unwanted health care related to COVID-19.

However, that’s not what the legislature did here. By including in the bill the sentence, “This Section is a declaration of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment,” this renders what would otherwise be an exception for COVID-19 nothing more than a resolution and statement from this general assembly of what they believe was the intent of the previous legislature that enacted the Health Care Right of Conscience Act and its other amendments. Resolutions are merely statements of opinion. They aren’t amendments, and they certainly don’t change the law.

The absurdity of this is astounding. The legislature here has said that they believe that the HCRCA, which states that “[i]t is the public policy of the State of Illinois to respect and protect the right of conscience of all persons who refuse to obtain, receive or accept … health care services and medical care … and to prohibit all forms of discrimination,” meant to say something like “except if it relates in any way to COVID-19.” Not only is this absurd and contrary to the plain language and ordinary meaning of the HCRCA, but also this is an unconstitutional attempt of the legislature to take on the role of the judiciary by interpreting what the intent of the HCRCA is.

In Illinois House and Illinois Senate debates when Republicans argued for the preservation of Illinoisans’ rights and of the HCRCS, Democrats and the Office of the Attorney General admitted that this bill came from the Governor. They admitted that the Attorney General needed his legislation to pass to help him in his fight against the people of Illinois using the HCRCA to protect their natural, God-given right to refuse health care based on their conscience.

What they didn’t admit, is that Senate Bill 1169 was meant to confuse the people of Illinois and coerce them into complying with mandates that they have no legal obligation to follow. The Illinois constitution prevents the Illinois legislature from interpreting the intent of the HCRCA. Only the courts have the power to interpret statutes and Illinois courts have given every indication that they believe the intent of the HCRCA was to protect all people in Illinois from receiving health care in violation of their conscience.

The Health Care Right of Conscience Act still protects your right to refuse COVID-19 related health care based on your conscience.

Austin Scott Davies is an attorney and founder of Midwest Legal Care , former prosecutor, and an active member of the Winnebago County Republican Party. He is also a board member for Concerned Citizens for America, a local chapter of Illinois Family Institute.

The information contained in this article is not legal advice and is for general information purposes only. Do not act or refrain from acting on the basis of this information. Readers should contact an attorney to obtain advice with respect to any legal matter.

I know we shouldn’t be surprised. We know intuitively and intellectually that the nature of Big Government is tyranny. Yet I was stunned to watch Illinois Democratic State Lawmakers intentionally and aggressively pursue an agenda to diminish the civil rights of its people. Not only did they attack health care conscience rights protections, but they also repealed Illinois’ last major abortion regulation which ensured the rights of parents/guardians to be notified when their minor daughter seeks to have an abortion.

Thankfully, not one Republican state lawmaker voted for these tyrannical proposals.

The second half of the 2021 Veto Session started on Tuesday where the Illinois Senate Executive Committee heard testimony on HB 370, the legislation to repeal the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. A few hours later, it was sent to the Illinois Senate floor, debated and then passed by a vote of 32-22, with 5 senators not voting.

The bill was sent to the Illinois House Executive Committee on Wednesday, where it was debated and sent to the Illinois House floor. The bill was taken up for debate Wednesday evening where it was debated and then passed by a vote a 64-52 with 2 voting present. You can watch and/or listen to the debate here below:

Myles Holmes, IFI Board member and pastor of Revive Church in Collinsville emphatically points out that

“government is not God and has no right to usurp the place of parents in the instruction and direction of their children’s lives. The passage of this onerous bill demonstrates the Marxist control that Democrats want over our families. The first response of Christian families must be to remove their children from government control in the public schools, and the second  is to work hard to remove these politicians in the next election.”

Governor JB Pritzker is expected to sign it into law. According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Pritzker “vowed” to sign the bill saying, “At a time when reproductive rights are under attack across the country, Illinois is protecting those critical reproductive rights.” The article does not explain that reproductive “rights” is literally license to kill pre-born human beings.

Conscience Rights

Immediately preceding their vote to usurp parental rights, the Illinois House of Representative decided to quash conscience rights when they took up and debated SB 1169. This bill diminishes the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act — specifically for COVID-19 remediation. In other words, the sponsors of this amendment intends to curtail the safeguard that existed in state law that allowed citizens to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The bill passed the Illinois House by a vote a 64-52 with 2 voting present. UPDATE: Late Thursday night (10/28/2021), the Illinois Senate concurred with the Illinois House and passed this bill by a vote of 31-24.

The chief sponsor of this legislator, State Representatives Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), repeatedly argued that the original intent of the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act was about abortion, birth control and sterilization and was crafted to protect healthcare professionals. In other words, it was not intended to protect people who want to avoid experimental and/or dubious medical treatments and/or the unmerciful despotism of vaccine mandates.

But the fact is, many who oppose being forced to take the COVID vaccine against their will firmly believe, as do we, that the Health Care Right of Conscience Act protects all citizens. You can read it for yourself.

(745 ILCS 70/5) (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 5305)
Sec. 5. Discrimination. It shall be unlawful for any person, public or private institution, or public official to discriminate against any person in any manner, including but not limited to, licensing, hiring, promotion, transfer, staff appointment, hospital, managed care entity, or any other privileges, because of such person’s conscientious refusal to receive, obtain, accept, perform, assist, counsel, suggest, recommend, refer or participate in any way in any particular form of health care services contrary to his or her conscience.
(Source: P.A. 90-246, eff. 1-1-98.)

You can watch and/or listen to the debate here below:

Calvin Lindstrom, IFA board member and pastor of Church of Christian Liberty in Arlington Heights, is disgusted with Illinois politics, saying:

I hate to say this, but Illinois is a failed state in terms of political government. We have been dealing with a governor who for over 18 months passes executive orders with very little challenge from other elected officials. On these important matters the legislative branch is useless. And then unfortunately when the legislative branch does decide to pass legislation it follows an agenda rather than listening to the citizens of this state. There was no grass roots movement among citizens of Illinois to remove parental notification when a minor seeks to obtain an abortion. And in the face of massive opposition to changing the law over rights of conscience with respect to health care, our lawmakers again follow an agenda with no real concern for the voices of citizens.

I can speak personally to this when I met my own state representative, Mark Walker, in the state capitol building on Tuesday. I tried to engage him in conversation on Parental Notification for Abortion. I asked him his position and he said something like, “It’s an obvious choice.” I asked, what does that mean. He responded by saying, he was voting for repeal for the safety of women. He then walked off in a very rude manner. Perhaps he had somewhere to go, but his dismissive manner was not appreciated.

This is not a time for weakness or capitulation even though we are sorrowful, frustrated, and righteously angry. The psalm our church is using for this week, Psalm 68, is a good prayer for God’s people to follow. “Let God arise, Let His enemies be scattered; Let those also who hate Him flee before Him.” (Psalm 68:1).

Both of these bills will soon be sent to the Governor’s office for his consideration. While he has publicly declared his support for these feckless bills, you may want to call his office to let him know that many Illinois residents oppose the eradication of the parental notice statute and the amendment to our conscience rights protection law. His phone number in Springfield is (217) 782-6830. His phone number in Chicago is (312) 814-2121.

State Representatives Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston), Bob Morgan (D-Highwood) and State Senator Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake) are sponsoring legislation (SB 1169) to diminish the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, specifically for COVID-19 remediation. In other words, these state lawmakers are heading up the effort to strike down existing legislation that protects citizens’ rights to excuse themselves from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The proposal is narrowly designed for this current pandemic in order to get enough votes to pass in the veto session, but it sets a dangerous precedent for future public health “emergencies” by cherry picking out the current pathogen of the moment. The new proposal simply states:

Sec. 13.5. Violations related to COVID-19 requirements. It is not a violation of this Act for any person or public

official, or for any public or private association, agency, corporation, entity, institution, or employer, to take any

measures or impose any requirements, including, but not limited to, any measures or requirements that involve

provision of services by a physician or health care personnel, intended to prevent contraction or transmission of

COVID-19 or any pathogens that result in COVID-19 or any of its subsequent iterations. It is not a violation of

this Act to enforce such measures or requirements, including by terminating employment or excluding individuals

from a school, a place of employment, or public or private premises in response to noncompliance.

This Section is a declaration of existing law and shall not be construed as a new enactment. Accordingly,

this Section shall apply to all actions commenced or pending on or after the effective date of this amendatory

Act of the 102nd General Assembly. Nothing in this Section is intended to affect any right or remedy under federal law.

This is a top priority for Governor JB Pritzker and other Illinois Democrats. They are frustrated with the fact that their tyrannical vaccine mandate has a strong legal defense in the Health Care Right of Conscience Act. In order to fire people from their jobs (private or public) for failing to comply with this “medical” dictate, this conscience protection must be eliminated.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to fill out a witness slip in OPPOSITION to SB 1169, House Floor Amendment 2.

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 self.

Section II. Leave it blank if you are not representing a group, or enter self.

Section III. Check that you are an Opponent to this feckless proposal.

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

Lastly, check that you agree to the terms of agreement.

Click Create (Slip).

If passed, SB 1169 would take effect immediately. It needs 71 votes to pass in the Illinois House and 36 votes in the Illinois Senate, however. Even with super majorities of Democrats in both chambers, securing those votes will not be an easy accomplishment. Please pray that our state lawmakers understand what is at stake here!

Thank you for taking action!

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