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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Do you want to know what motivates and animates our “Social Justice Warriors”? Well, I know you know it’s not really justice—one of the buzzwords often blathered by our warriors—because justice depends on absolute standards by which to determine the parameters and constitutive features of justice. While claiming to promote justice, these battlers steadfastly stand against virtue and truth. In other words, they Oppose Righteousness Continuously. They’re ORCs. (Any resemblance to fictional goblins is purely coincidental).

One ORC, cross-dressing lesbian activist Timna Axel, donates her time and apartment to help women from other states have the tiny innocent humans in their wombs slaughtered. Axel volunteers for the Midwest Access Coalition (MAC), a tax-deductible non-profit organization that “helps people traveling to, from, and within the Midwest access a safe, legal abortion with support in the following areas: travel coordination and costs, lodging, food, medicine, and emotional support.” One of the other services MAC offers is to refer pregnant minors who want to circumvent parental involvement in their decision to abort their children to the Illinois Judicial Bypass Coordination Project.

Axel is featured in a Chicago Tribune article about the startling number of women who are traveling to Illinois to have their offspring killed—killings that ORC Axel enjoys facilitating. The Tribune reports that “Last year, 5,528 women traveled to Illinois from other states to terminate pregnancies, almost a thousand more than the 4,543 women who came from out of state in 2016.”

Using the usual euphemism of “health care” to refer to human killing, Axel frets, “It doesn’t seem right there should be this island of health care access in Chicago.” Apparently in Axel’s dystopian world, what the world needs now is a continent of feticide-providers.

Axel isn’t the only homosexual activist quoted in the Tribune. Terry Cosgrove, a well-known Chicago activist who slavishly pursues all things dark, is also quoted. Cosgrove, president and CEO of the pro-human-killing advocacy group Personal PAC, absurdly asserts that the abortion restrictions in surrounding states are “pure misogyny.” Really? Well, here’s an inconvenient fact for Cosgrove: about half of the 39, 329 abortions committed in Illinois in 2017 were girls. Some might argue that the intentional killing of well over 19,000 girl babies is more misogynistic than restrictions that prevent the killings of girls. (BTW, I thought men were not permitted to have an opinion on abortion.)

J.R.R. Tolkien writes this about his fictional Orcs:

Their language was actually more degraded and filthy than I have shown it…. Much the same sort of talk can still be heard among the orc-minded; dreary and repetitive with hatred and contempt, too long removed from good to retain even verbal vigor, save in the ears of those to whom only the squalid sounds strong.

Uncanny resemblance to America’s ORCs.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Orc-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; and Denise Schick, Founder and Director of Help 4 Families, and daughter of a man who “identified” as a woman.

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

A three-person panel of commissioners from the 13-member Illinois Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has decided not to review the egregious decision of IHRC administrative law judge Michael Robinson in the discrimination complaint filed by homosexuals Todd and Mark Wathen against Christian bed and breakfast owner Jim Walder.

In 2011, the now “married” Wathens, inquired about renting the Timber Creek Bed & Breakfast facility in Paxton, Illinois for their civil union ceremony. Because of his religious beliefs about the immorality of homoerotic activity and relationships, Mr. Walder informed Todd Wathen that he would not rent his facilities to Mr. Wathen and his partner for a civil union ceremony.

The Wathens then filed a discrimination complaint with the IHRC—a kangaroo-esque tribunal committed to normalizing homoeroticism through quasi-judicial means.

Last spring, Judge Michael Robinson issued his order which would require Mr. Walder to do the following:

– Pay $15,000 each to Todd and Mark Wathen as compensation for their emotional distress arising out of the issue.

-Cease and desist from violating the Human Rights Act by denying same-sex couples access to its facilities and services for marriages and civil unions.

-Offer the Wathens access to the facility, within one year, for an event celebrating their civil union.

-Pay the Wathens’ attorneys $50,000 in fees and $1,218 in costs.

Mr. Walder’s attorney, Jason Craddock, filed an “exception” which was reviewed by the three commissioners who have decided that Judge Robinson’s decision should stand.

If you’re not angry yet, here’s some information that may raise your hackles.

• All of the Illinois Human Rights commissioners are appointed bureaucrats—not elected.

• Only one of the three commissioners who reviewed the Walder case is an attorney.

• Two of the three commissioners who reviewed this case are homosexual activists: Terry Cosgrove and Duke Alden.

• Homosexual activist Duke Alden was appointed to the Illinois Human Rights kangaroo court by Governor Bruce Rauner.

Here’s a bit more information on homosexual activists Cosgrove and Alden:

• Terry Cosgrove was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 2014. He is also a passionate and unrelenting foe of the right of preborn babies to be free from extermination. He is president and CEO of pro-feticide Personal PAC and “has lent assistance to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, NOW, National Pro-Choice Resource Center, Voters for Choice, Women’s Campaign Fund and the Emergency Abortion Loan Fund.” Cosgrove was also “honored” with the dubious “Freedom of Choice” award by the Chicago Abortion Fund. Cosgrove was appointed by former Governor Pat Quinn after donating $400,000 to help fund Quinn’s victory over Bill Brady.

• Rauner appointee Democrat Duke Alden is the chairman of Howard Brown Health, an “LGBT” health and social services organization. Alden served on the host committee for a “Presidential Debate Viewing Party” for “Chicago’s LGBT community to cheer on Hillary Clinton.”

The third commissioner on the panel was Patricia Bakalis Yadgir, a Quinn appointee whose husband is Director of Communications and Senior Policy Advisor for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White and whose father is former state comptroller, former state superintendent of education, and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michael Bakalis.

Here’s where it really gets interesting. State law prohibits more than seven members of the same political party from serving on the IHRC. Currently there are 6 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and two “Independents.” And who do you think the two “Independents” are? None other than (no snickering) Terry Cosgrove and Patricia Bakalis Yadgir.

In reality, therefore, there are 8 Democrat and 5 Republican commissioners on the IHRC. And there were no Republicans on the panel reviewing the complaint against the Walders.

So, after learning a bit more about the commissioners who made the decision on the Wathen’s complaint, can anyone read this statement from the Illinois Human Rights Commission with a straight face:

The Commission provides a neutral forum for resolving complaints of discrimination filed under the Illinois Human Rights Act….Our primary responsibility is to make impartial determinations of whether there has been unlawful discrimination, as defined by the Illinois Human Rights Act.

Here are just a few comments about marriage, homoeroticism, and the plight of Christian owners of wedding-related businesses on which the intellectually slothful among us might spend some time ruminating:

• Marriage has an intrinsic nature central to which is sexual differentiation and without which a union is not in reality a marriage.

• The law cannot change the intrinsic nature of marriage. The law can no more transform intrinsically non-marital unions into marriages by issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples than it could change cats into dogs by issuing them dog licenses.

• When homosexuals say they are attracted only to persons of their same sex, they are implicitly acknowledging that men and women are fundamentally different. Therefore, a union composed of two people of the same sex is fundamentally different from a union composed of two people of different sexes.

• A union composed of two people of the same sex is the antithesis of a marriage. It is an anti-marriage. The ceremony that solemnizes such a union is an anti-wedding. The cake that is served at the anti-wedding reception is an anti-wedding cake. The floral arrangements adorning an anti-wedding reception are anti-wedding floral arrangements.

• Neither Mr. Walder nor any of the florists, bakers, wedding-venue owners, or photographers who have been sued by petulant homosexuals have refused to serve homosexuals. Rather, they refused to create products or provide services for a type of event for which they have never created products or provided services and one which violates their religious convictions. In fact, many of the Christian business-owners who have been sued have served homosexuals on many occasions—an inconvenient fact for Leftists.

• The term “sexual orientation” should never have been added to anti-discrimination laws or policies. It is a rhetorical invention of the Left contrived to conflate heterosexuality and homoeroticism. Heterosexuality and homoeroticism are not flipsides of the sexuality coin. In any objective sense all humans are heterosexual in that their anatomy and biology are designed for heterosexual activity. Homoeroticism is a disordering of the sexual impulse.

• Unlike other legally protected classes that are objectively constituted and carry no behavioral implications (e.g., race, sex, nation of origin), homoeroticism is constituted by subjective feelings and volitional sexual activity. Therefore, homoeroticism is a condition about which humans have every right to make moral judgments.

Mr. Walder has two remaining options: He may file an appeal to have the case reviewed by the entire ideologically imbalanced 13-member IHRC or file an appeal with an appellate court. Let’s hope he and his legal counsel don’t stop now.

Take ACTION:  Please click HERE to contact Governor Rauner to express your opposition to his appointment of Democrat and homosexual activist Duke Alden and to urge him to investigate the Illinois Human Rights Commission’s efforts to circumvent the law prohibiting political imbalance on the Commission.

Listen to this as a podcast HERE.

The Illinois Family Institute is completely dependent on the voluntary contributions of individuals just like you.  Without you, we would be unable to represent our Christian values in Springfield or fight the radical agenda being pushed by the godless Left in our culture.

Please consider chipping in $25 or $50 to support our work to stand boldly in the public square.

Click HERE to make a tax-deductible donation.

To make a credit card donation over the phone,
please call the IFI office at (708) 781-9328.

To learn more, please make sure you read IFI’s Laurie Higgins’ article on this unbelievable controversy: Quinn Nominates Morally Bankrupt Activist to the Human Rights Commission

Take ACTION: Send an email or a fax to Governor Quinn to tell him how deeply offensive it is to know that he would appoint a pro-abortion, pro-homosexual campaign contributor to the Human Rights Commission.

Imagine this: A 58-year-old man who has made deviant sexuality the cornerstone of his identity and who has dedicated his professional life to making sure that every woman is permitted by law to have her preborn baby killed has been nominated by Governor Quinn to sit on the “Human Rights Commission.”

After receiving thousands of dollars for his election campaign from openly homosexual, anti-life activist Terry Cosgrove, Quinn has nominated him to sit on the Illinois Human Rights Commission from which Cosgrove can promote even more cultural evil. In addition, many of the lawmakers who are voting on Cosgrove’s nomination received campaign contributions from Cosgrove’s anti-life Personal PAC.

Through his Personal PAC, Cosgrove works unrelentingly to elect lawmakers who will preserve legalized infanticide in law. How darkly ironic that Quinn has nominated someone who fights tenaciously for the rights of fully developed humans to destroy less-developed humans to a commission ostensibly committed to “human rights.” It seems self-evident that the right merely to exist is a right of a higher moral order than some specious “right” to end the life of another human being.

Here’s more on Quinn’s morally bankrupt nominee from Cosgrove’s website:

Terry Cosgrove is the President and CEO of Personal PAC. He along with the Board of Directors, has been instrumental in developing Personal PAC’s sophisticated strategy for electing pro-choice candidates. This strategy incorporates an intensive paid telephone program that has identified nearly ½ million pro-choice voters in Illinois, plus a sophisticated direct mail campaign and comprehensive campaign consulting.

Terry’s campaign consulting is a real plus in implementing Personal PAC’s political strategy. He works closely with numerous candidates to make sure they have the nuts-and-bolts tools to win on election day. Among other things, he assists candidates in selecting pollsters, media consultants, direct mail firms, and paid campaign staffers. He also helps them recruit volunteers, execute fundraising plans, and any other activity necessary to ensure their success. In 1999, Terry became President and CEO of Personal PAC.

Over the past twenty-five years, in addition to his Personal PAC responsibilities, Terry has also managed many political campaigns and has lent assistance to NARAL, Planned Parenthood, NOW, National Pro-Choice Resource Center, Voters for Choice, Women’s Campaign Fund and the Emergency Abortion Loan Fund. In 1992, Terry played a pivotal role in restoring abortion services for poor women at Cook County Hospital, one of the largest public hospitals in the nation. Terry was also honored with the ‘Freedom of Choice’ award by the Chicago Abortion Fund.

Take ACTION: Ask your state senator to oppose the nomination of Terry Cosgrove to the Human Rights Commission.

You can also call your state senator via the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000.

Please take a moment to email and call today!