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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 3, 2019

CONTACT: Mallory Quigley [email protected] 202-223-8073

Radical Legislation Expands Abortion on Demand Through Birth, Repeals Illinois’ Partial-Birth Abortion Ban, Allows Non-Doctors to Perform Abortions, & More 

Washington, D.C. –  Today the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List) slammed radical legislation passed by Illinois lawmakers to expand abortion on demand through birth, allow non-doctors to perform abortions, repeal the state’s ban on partial birth abortion, and more.

Late Friday the Illinois Senate sent the Illinois Reproductive Health Act to the desk of Governor J.B. Pritzker, who supports it. SBA List mobilized its Illinois grassroots members to contact their representatives to oppose the bill.

“This law is the most extreme expansion of abortion on demand anywhere in the country, even worse than the one enacted by New York earlier this year,” said SBA List’s National Campaign Chair Jill Stanek, an Illinois native, a former nurse who witnessed babies being born alive and left to die in Chicago. “It allows abortion throughout pregnancy, up to the moment of birth, for any reason. It allows abortions by a non-doctor in a facility that’s not inspected and doesn’t have to report injuries. It strips away conscience protections for pro-life health care workers and forces all health insurance policies to cover abortions, including religious organizations. It even goes so far as to repeal Illinois’ ban on barbaric partial-birth abortions and eliminates protections for babies born alive during failed abortions. It is sweeping and barbaric.

“While courageous pro-life Democrats have defeated similar bills in Rhode Island and New Mexico and worked to enact popular protections for unborn children and their mothers in states like Louisiana, Illinois lawmakers have doubled down on extremism. Since Illinois expanded taxpayer funding of abortion, the state has experienced a stunning 1,758 percent increase in abortions paid for by taxpayers. Illinoisans do not want our state to be known as the ‘abortion oasis’ of the Midwest. Governor Pritzker ought to stand with the majority of his constituents and veto this outrageous bill, though we have very little hope that he’ll stand up against the extreme abortion lobby.”

The Honorable Peter Breen, former Illinois Representative and Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel, added, “This is easily the most expansive abortion law in the United States.”

If signed into law, the bill will:

• Repeal the Illinois Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act;
• Create a “fundamental right” to abortion on demand through the moment of birth, for any reason;
• Provide legal framework to abolish Illinois’ parental notification law;
• Remove licensing requirements for abortion facilities;
• Allow non-doctors to perform abortions;
• Force all private health insurance plans to cover abortion on demand, including religious organizations;
• Expressly declare that the unborn child has no rights;
• Remove conscience protections for pro-life doctors, nurses, and hospitals;
• Eliminate the requirement that abortion data, including the number of abortions performed on out-of-state women or underage girls, be reported publicly;
• Eliminate the requirement to investigate maternal deaths due to abortion.

The vote comes as a bipartisan majority of the Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee and the New Mexico Senate recently voted to reject similar legislation.

SBA List is a network of more than 700,000 pro-life Americans nationwide, dedicated to ending abortion by electing national leaders and advocating for laws that save lives, with a special calling to promote pro-life women leaders.

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