A teenage girl in Illinois may not get her ears pierced without her parents’ consent, but as of June 1, she is allowed to get an abortion entirely without their knowledge, thanks to the abortion lobby and a preponderance of pro-abortion Democrats in Springfield.
According to Capitol News Illinois, in October, “despite opposition from some Democrats,” the Illinois General Assembly passed and Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the Youth Health and Safety Act, “which, among other things, declares it to be public policy in Illinois that residents and people coming into the state should have access to reproductive health care, free of unnecessary barriers or bans on particular procedures.”
The law also repealed the Parental Notice of Abortion Law of 1995, which merely required a minor seeking an abortion to notify a parent, legal guardian, or grandparent at least 48 hours before undergoing the procedure. It did not require her to obtain anyone’s consent.
Despite abortion advocates’ caterwauling that the law imposed an undue burden on pregnant teenagers, it contained some significant exceptions. “Minors who are victims of physical or sexual abuse or neglect by an adult family member” were exempt from the notification requirement, Capitol News Illinois reported last June. “Another exception in the law, referred to as ‘judicial bypass,’ allows for minors to obtain a court waiver, if the minor can show she is mature and well-informed enough to make the decision to obtain an abortion, or that it is not in their best interest to notify an adult family member.”
That was still not good enough for the abortion lobby, which kept the law tied up in litigation until 2013.
Naturally, they and their allies are thrilled that girls can now have their unborn children killed without so much as a by-your-leave to their babies’ grandparents-to-be.
“Prior to today, pregnant young people [not ‘girls’ or ‘women,’ which would be transphobic] could make any medical decision without barriers except abortion. Now thankfully they have the same right to make a confidential decision about their health care as everyone else,” Emily Werth, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Illinois, said in a statement.
Pro-lifers, just as naturally, lamented the demise of the parental-notification mandate.
“It is a grave injustice that the Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pritzker repealed this law,” the Catholic Conference of Illinois said in a statement. “The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was a broadly-supported, reasonable safeguard that allowed Illinois’ parents to properly exercise love and care for their children.”
Indeed, so broad was the law’s support that lawmakers clearly were not thinking of reelection when they passed it. A March 2021 poll found that 72 percent of registered Prairie State voters — including 58 percent of those identifying as “pro-choice” and 76 percent of minority voters — favored the law.
At the time, the Catholic Bishops of Illinois warned of one serious consequence of repealing the law: “If a minor girl can be taken by any adult man to an abortion clinic, in the hopes of erasing the evidence of his abuse, what protection exists outside of the girl’s parent or guardian being informed? Why would we want to create such a dangerous environment?”
The abortion lobby, of course, would want to create such an environment precisely because abortion clinics are frequently complicit in covering up sexual abuse. Why else would they so vehemently oppose laws mandating that they report suspected abuse to authorities?
Still, even if the repeal doesn’t lead to abuse coverups, the logic behind letting underage girls obtain abortions without informing their parents makes little sense — unless, as seems obvious, the objective is simply to kill as many unborn children as possible. As Republican state Representative Tom Morrison observed, “The state has prohibited these same girls from getting ear piercings, tattoos, smoking, buying lottery tickets or even visiting indoor tanning salons because they are deemed not mature enough to understand the consequences of their decisions. Getting pregnant as a minor is a very serious matter, just as getting a surgical or chemical abortion as a minor is a very serious matter. In either case, parents have a right to know what’s going on with their children.”
