By JERRY NOWICKI

Capitol News Illinois

jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Senate Executive Committee advanced a measure to repeal the state’s Parental Notice of Abortion Act early Tuesday evening amid staunch opposition from Republicans and religious groups.

The repeal bill advanced to the full Senate, which could vote on it as early as Tuesday night. Its future in the House was less certain as of Tuesday night.

The current law, the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995, was passed decades ago but ultimately took effect only in 2013 after court challenges. It does not require parental consent, only that a doctor’s office notify a parent of the child’s planned abortion 48 hours prior to the procedure.

Discussion on the repeal bill, an amendment to House Bill 370, centered on whether a parent has the right to be informed by a medical professional if their child was scheduled for an abortion or whether the requirement needlessly puts at-risk youths in danger.

“This issue goes beyond the typical pro-life-versus-pro-choice debate,” Republican Sen. Sue Rezin, of Morris, said in a news conference opposing repeal last week. “We're way past just discussing our views on abortion. We are literally now discussing if a parent has a right to know about their child's pregnancy and abortion.”

Rezin and other GOP members of the committee questioned why a minor must have parental consent to get their ears pierced or to receive a vaccine, but would no longer be subject to parental notification of abortion under the repeal.

Emily Werth, a staff attorney at ACLU of Illinois, responded that in Illinois, a minor who is pregnant no longer has to receive parental consent for any medical care. The pregnant minor could undergo a caesarian section, receive a vaccine or get any other medical care without parental notice or consent.

“And that is because the General Assembly has made the policy decision that when a young person is pregnant, it is in their best interests and all of our best interest that they have access to whatever medical care they need, without delay, without being put in harm's way,” Werth said. “Abortion is one kind of medical care that they may need when they are pregnant. And it should be treated the same as any other kind of medical care.”

There was also disagreement over whether the bill would help protect human trafficking victims or put them in greater danger.

Representatives of the ACLU and human trafficking victim advocates have argued that there has been no proven link that parental notification serves as a deterrent for sexual traffickers or abusers.

Rezin cited a story by human trafficking survivor Brook Bello, who previously testified that if her mother would have been notified when she was forced as a youth by her traffickers to get abortions decades ago, it may have helped free her from the situation.

“How would repealing this law not help human traffickers?” Rezin asked.

Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, the bill’s sponsor, responded that the bill would direct a newly-created working group to look for policy solutions for human trafficking and resources to fund them.  The General Assembly also recently created a human trafficking task force, Sims said.

Advocates for repeal also argued in the committee that, in some cases, the parent or guardian is the person that is abusing or trafficking the child, and notifying them would create a dangerous situation.

The GOP pointed at exceptions in the existing law that they said are designed to protect victims.

The current law contains exceptions if the minor was a victim of physical or sexual abuse or neglect by an adult family member, if the minor is married or emancipated, or if the provider determines there is a medical emergency, or if an adult family member waives the notice in writing. A judge can also waive the requirement and has done so approximately 575 times since the law took effect, Werth said.

Werth, who works with the ACLU of Illinois to assist minors in the judicial bypass process, said while bypass works for 99.8 percent of the individuals who initiate it, the number does not account for those who are unable to access it.

“The system is complicated and creates significant logistical and emotional burdens for young people,” she said. “This number only reflects the young people who actually manage to get to court. There have been many who simply could not find a way to miss school to attend court during business hours without their parents being alerted.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, court hearings have taken place online, making it even more difficult in some circumstances, she said. The court process also makes victims relive their pain, she said.

Ultimately, the bill passed the committee on a partisan 9-6-1 vote, heading to the Senate floor for a potential vote Tuesday evening before it faced an uncertain future in the House.

Faith leaders, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese in Springfield, earlier in the day argued the parental notice law serves as a deterrent to abortion. At a Capitol news conference, he characterized abortion as murder and said the parental notice act was about parental rights and protecting the mental health of the child.

“These laws exist because they protect children from making serious life-changing decisions that they are not yet equipped to make,” he said. “These laws exist to protect the rights of parents to fulfill the duty that God has entrusted to them, and that no government can take away.”

But advocates argued pregnant youths notify their parents willingly in the vast majority of situations.

“And that's not going to change,” Werth said. “If we repeal the parental notice of abortion act in Illinois, a majority of young people will still choose to involve their parents, one or both parents, in this decision because that is their chosen and trusted support system.”

Sims also noted the bill would create the Youth Health and Safety Advisory Working Group to “identify existing and needed resources for pregnant and parenting youth, and youth seeking reproductive health care.”

The unpaid working group would include four members appointed by each the speaker of the House, Senate president and governor, at least half of which are youth. Minority leaders would each appoint two members, half of them youth. Each legislative leader would also appoint a member from their chamber.

The working group would report to the General Assembly and governor by July 1, 2023. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

By JERRY NOWICKI

Capitol News Illinois

jnowicki@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Senate advanced a measure to repeal the state’s Parental Notice of Abortion Act early Tuesday evening amid staunch opposition from Republicans and religious groups.

The repeal bill passed the Senate Executive Committee on a 9-6-1 vote Tuesday shortly after 5 p.m., and passed the full Senate 32-22 shortly after 8 p.m. Its future in the House was less certain as of Tuesday night.

The current law, the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995, was passed decades ago but ultimately took effect only in 2013 after court challenges. It does not require parental consent, only that a doctor’s office notify a parent of the child’s planned abortion 48 hours prior to the procedure.

Discussion on the repeal bill, an amendment to House Bill 370, centered on whether a parent has the right to be informed by a medical professional if their child was scheduled for an abortion or whether the requirement needlessly puts at-risk youths in danger.

“This issue goes beyond the typical pro-life-versus-pro-choice debate,” Republican Sen. Sue Rezin, of Morris, said in a news conference opposing repeal last week. “We're way past just discussing our views on abortion. We are literally now discussing if a parent has a right to know about their child's pregnancy and abortion.”

Rezin and other GOP members of the committee questioned why a minor must have parental consent to get their ears pierced or to receive a vaccine, but would no longer be subject to parental notification of abortion under the repeal.

Emily Werth, a staff attorney at ACLU of Illinois, responded that in Illinois, a minor who is pregnant no longer has to receive parental consent for any medical care. The pregnant minor could undergo a caesarian section, receive a vaccine or get any other medical care without parental notice or consent.

“And that is because the General Assembly has made the policy decision that when a young person is pregnant, it is in their best interests and all of our best interest that they have access to whatever medical care they need, without delay, without being put in harm's way,” Werth said. “Abortion is one kind of medical care that they may need when they are pregnant. And it should be treated the same as any other kind of medical care.”

There was also disagreement over whether the bill would help protect human trafficking victims or put them in greater danger.

Representatives of the ACLU and human trafficking victim advocates have argued that there has been no proven link that parental notification serves as a deterrent for sexual traffickers or abusers.

Rezin cited a story by human trafficking survivor Brook Bello, who previously testified that if her mother would have been notified when she was forced as a youth by her traffickers to get abortions decades ago, it may have helped free her from the situation.

“How would repealing this law not help human traffickers?” Rezin asked.

Sen. Elgie Sims, D-Chicago, the bill’s sponsor, responded that the bill would direct a newly-created working group to look for policy solutions for human trafficking and resources to fund them.  The General Assembly also recently created a human trafficking task force, Sims said.

Advocates for repeal also argued in the committee that, in some cases, the parent or guardian is the person that is abusing or trafficking the child, and notifying them would create a dangerous situation.

The GOP pointed at exceptions in the existing law that they said are designed to protect victims.

The current law contains exceptions if the minor was a victim of physical or sexual abuse or neglect by an adult family member, if the minor is married or emancipated, or if the provider determines there is a medical emergency, or if an adult family member waives the notice in writing. A judge can also waive the requirement and has done so approximately 575 times since the law took effect, Werth said.

Werth, who works with the ACLU of Illinois to assist minors in the judicial bypass process, said while bypass works for 99.8 percent of the individuals who initiate it, the number does not account for those who are unable to access it.

“The system is complicated and creates significant logistical and emotional burdens for young people,” she said. “This number only reflects the young people who actually manage to get to court. There have been many who simply could not find a way to miss school to attend court during business hours without their parents being alerted.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, court hearings have taken place online, making it even more difficult in some circumstances, she said. The court process also makes victims relive their pain, she said.

Ultimately, the bill passed with only Democratic support. Democrats Chris Belt, of Swansea, Thomas Cullerton, of Villa Park, Bill Cunningham, of Chicago, Napoleon Harris, of Harvey, Michael Hastings, of Frankfort, and Steve Landek, of Bridgeview, were all recorded as “not voting” on the measure.

Democratic Sens. Rachelle Crowe, of Glen Carbon, Meg Loughran Cappel, of Shorewood, and Patrick Joyce, of Essex, joined Republicans in opposing the measure.

Because it did not receive a three-fifths majority, it cannot take effect until June 1, 2022, due to a provision in the state constitution that applies to bills passed after May 31.   

Faith leaders, including Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese in Springfield, earlier in the day argued the parental notice law serves as a deterrent to abortion. At a Capitol news conference, he characterized abortion as murder and said the parental notice act was about parental rights and protecting the mental health of the child.

“These laws exist because they protect children from making serious life-changing decisions that they are not yet equipped to make,” he said. “These laws exist to protect the rights of parents to fulfill the duty that God has entrusted to them, and that no government can take away.”

But advocates argued pregnant youths notify their parents willingly in the vast majority of situations.

“And that's not going to change,” Werth said. “If we repeal the parental notice of abortion act in Illinois, a majority of young people will still choose to involve their parents, one or both parents, in this decision because that is their chosen and trusted support system.”

Sims also noted the bill would create the Youth Health and Safety Advisory Working Group to “identify existing and needed resources for pregnant and parenting youth, and youth seeking reproductive health care.”

The unpaid working group would include four members appointed by each the speaker of the House, Senate president and governor, at least half of which are youth. Minority leaders would each appoint two members, half of them youth. Each legislative leader would also appoint a member from their chamber.

The working group would report to the General Assembly and governor by July 1, 2023. 

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

By PETER HANCOCK

Capitol News Illinois

phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – The latest draft of a new congressional district map for Illinois met with much of the same criticism as the first draft during a House committee hearing Tuesday.

The latest proposal from legislative Democratic leaders was released Saturday. It divides the state into 17 congressional districts, one fewer than the state currently has due to its population loss since the 2010 U.S. Census.

“We need look no further than the concrete corridor that is the proposed 13th and the rural monoliths of the 12th and 15th to see that this is a gerrymandered map,” Joel Funk, a resident of the Metro East area, said during virtual testimony before the House Redistricting Committee.

Under the proposed map, a new 13^th District would be formed along a narrow strip of land stretching roughly 170 miles from East St. Louis to Champaign.

The 12^th District, in southern Illinois, would be a combination of two existing districts because that is an area of the state that saw the most dramatic population loss. It would pit incumbent Republican Reps. Mike Bost and Mary Miller into a contest against each other.

The proposed new 15^th District would be an oddly-shaped chunk of central Illinois that wraps around the proposed 13^th District, starting with a portion of Collinsville in the Metro East area, stretching east to the Indiana border, wrapping around the city of Champaign and stretching west again to the Mississippi River, from an area just north of Edwardsville northward to an area just south of the Quad Cities.

The proposal also calls for a new 16^th District that would cover much of southern and northern Illinois that would put incumbent Republicans Reps. Darin LaHood and Adam Kinzinger into the same district.

“This is the kind of map that convinces more Americans that their vote doesn't matter, and pushes to those that still bother to vote further apart into tribes unable to communicate with each other,” Funk said.

William Sullivan, a resident of Chicago’s northwest side, also criticized the maps, saying it divides neighborhoods in his area unnecessarily.

“It would really have to be called the incumbent retention map because the 5th and the 9^th districts really have nothing in common,” he said. “Neighborhoods are just strung together like spaghetti on the wall.”

A number of people from the area that makes up the 3^rd District, on Chicago’s southwest side, urged lawmakers to keep the core of that district intact. Much of that area would be divided into proposed new 4^th and 6^th districts.

An analysis of the latest proposal by the nonpartisan Princeton Gerrymandering Project gave the proposal a grade of F on all three categories that it measures – partisan fairness; competitiveness; and geographic features. It said the maps would create a “significant Democratic advantage,” that the proposed districts would be “very uncompetitive relative to other maps that could have been drawn,” and that it creates non-compact districts that include “more county splits than typical.”

During the hearing, Republican Rep. Tom Demmer, of Dixon, asked Democratic committee Chairwoman Lisa Hernandez, of Cicero, directly whether the maps were drawn to increase Democrats’ partisan advantage.

“I would say politics plays a part,” Hernandez said.

The Senate Redistricting Committee is tentatively scheduled to hold a hearing on the maps Wednesday. But as of late Tuesday afternoon, no notice of a hearing had been posted on the General Assembly’s website.

Lawmakers have only two scheduled days remaining in the fall veto session. Democratic leaders have said they intend to approve new congressional maps before the veto session ends Thursday.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government and distributed to more than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.