Breaking news: Court lifts injunction on IL parental notice law
From the Associated Press, an hour ago:
A federal appeals court has revived the fortunes of a decades-old IL law requiring teenage girls to notify their parents before getting abortions.
The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday reversed a lower court’s ruling that had barred enforcement of the measure.
Here’s a press release from the legal victors, the team at Chicago’s Thomas More Society (which also successfully represented Scheidler before the U.S. Supreme Court in NOW vs. Scheidler) …
Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit dissolved the federal injunction against the IL Parental Notice of Abortion Act. As a direct result of the court’s decision (Zbaraz v. Hartigan), IL parents will be entitled, for the first time since Roe v. Wade was decided, to notification before their minor daughters are taken for abortions. The decision is the culmination of four years work by the Thomas More Society, particularly TMS Special Counsel Paul Linton….
The Parental Notice Act has been in legal limbo for more than 10 years because of the IL Supreme Court’s refusal to issue the rules necessary to make the Act effective. Since the passage of the Act in 1995, over 50k IL minors have obtained abortions, more than 4k of whom were 14 years old or younger, without any requirement to notify their parents beforehand.
Chart above indicates in 2007 alone 257 girls ages 14 and under were aborted without legal notice to their parents.
I spoke with Linton. The other side could appeal for the full 7th Circuit to rehear the case, which would likely prove unsuccessful. But that would buy the industry 3-4 months to abort more underage girls sans parental involvement.
After that, the other side could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it would have more to lose by so doing than pro-lifers.
The other side has three weeks to play its hand. So it ain’t quite over. But this was likely the last judicial roadblock.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Praise God!
I don’t see why this is controversial. It doesn’t require consent. The parents just have to be told. It’s just about basic safety. What if the girl gets an infection and doesn’t know enough to get treatment?
How can the state abort underage girls? Shouldn’t you have said that underage girls were obtaining abortions without parental consent, rather than that the underage girls themselves were being aborted?
Libertarian,
The powers that be in the great state of Illinois (Lisa Madigan?) couldn’t figure out how to enforce the Parental Notification Law (which many states already enforce), so the law sat dormant for ten or so years. The big deal is that Illinois parents finally won the right to be told about their minor children’s desire for abortion before the fact.
God bless the Thomas More Society.
This is wonderful! All the work pro-family people did years ago to protect parental rights is FINALLY bearing fruit. Thank you Thomas Moore Society….
Pro-abortion heads about to explode in 3…2…1…
This is AWESOME news. Thank God for The Thomas More Society. Congratulations to Paul Linton, Tom Brecha and their whole legal team. I try to send a donation to them when I can, if others can help them I am sure it would be appreciated, so they can keep up the good work. Please continue to pray and work Pro-lifers.
If you have not contacted your Senators and Congressmen already about NOT spending your federal tax dollars to pay for abortions in Washington DC which will set the precedent to expand abortion nationwide, please contact them today, they are supposed to vote tomorrow.
Hooray!!!
Parents and children and the will of the majority in Illinois shall soon be saved from Lisa Madigan and the obstructionist Planned Parenthood goons. Here was a letter I had written to Lisa Madigan last year about this:
*********************************
We are parents of six children in Illinois. Their ages are 16, 14, 12, 8, 2.5, and 1 years old. The state of Illinois expects me to “exercise reasonable control” over my children. I do not mind that at all. I agree that parents should have responsibilty for their children’s actions and for the welfare of their children. And the state acknowledged this when they passed the Illinois Parental Notification Act of 1995.
According to the Act which was unanimously passed by the Illinois General Assembly:
“The medical, emotional, and psychological consequences of abortion are sometimes serious and long?lasting, and immature minors often lack the ability to make fully informed choices that consider both the immediate and long?range consequences.
Parental consultation is usually in the best interest of the minor and is desirable since the capacity to become pregnant and the capacity for mature judgment concerning the wisdom of an abortion are not necessarily related.”
I whole-heartedly agree with the sentiments expressed in this Act. It is my understanding that parents in 34 other states have been afforded this protection for their children and that the U.S. Supreme Court has deemed these types of laws constitutional. I am disgusted that this law has been on the books now for thirteen years in Illinois and has still not been enforced.
I do not trust these privately run abortion clinics that Planned Parenthood is opening up all over the place. They have virtually no governmental oversight, because they claim “reproductive privacy” about the abortions they perform. They are not open and honest in conducting their business. They have a record of hiding their intentions from the townspeople when opening new abortion clinics. In fact, Planned Parenthood Executive Steve Trombley has been on the record as stating he hid the opening of the new facility in Aurora from the residents, because he did not want them interfering with the building process.
I also know that the Aurora City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution asking you to please give them an enforceable Parental Notification Act. These girls are not even at the age of legal consent for sex in our state. It is our government’s duty to enforce this law and give parents a way to maintain oversight of their unemancipated minors. Please reply and let me know what you intend to do to correct this travesty of justice.
****************************
I never got any reply from her or anybody in her office.
Lisa Madigan -> bum
Yes truthseeker, I’ll bet you never got a response from Lisa Madigan and her office. To those who don’t know the story. Lisa Madigan, the impeached ex-govenor Blago and the POTUS are all strong local supporters of PP, because PP were major contributors to their campaigns. Both Blago’s wife, Patti (the potty mouth who has been under federal investigation) and Obama’s wife, Michelle, (who even wrote a fundraising letter for PP) have been strong PP supporters for years. The just re-elected Mayor of Aurora promised a full independent, investigation to find out how PP “snuck” into town but a city hall worker reported the mayor received a phone call, next thing they knew he called an immediate press conference to announce PP was opening. Anyone want to take a guess who called the mayor and got such an immediate reaction? Anyone want to take bets that it was a powerhouse Democrat politician at either the federal or state level? Do you think this was ever investigated by any of the media, TV, newspapers, watchdog organizations, etc.? NEVER HAPPENED. Thank God the parental notice law is now out of limbo but we still have a ways to go but at least this is a start.
Thank you for your hard work and time on this issue. I never could understand that a minor has to have parental permission to get an asprin in school or permission to get their ears pierced, but for something this major and live changing no notification was necessary. There was something worng with that picture. Thank you again.