Last December, pro-abortion advocates led by Terry Cosgrove, president of Personal PAC, made it very clear what their next political move is: repealing Illinois’ 1995 Parental Notice of Abortion law in 2020. In an interview with Politico, Cosgrove said, “it’s the most important bill coming up.”
The law, which only recently took effect in 2013, requires that in the case of a minor girl seeking an abortion, her parents must be notified at least 48 hours prior to her abortion. Or in cases of parental abuse and incest, the minor girl may alternatively receive the approval of a judge, thereby bypassing the requirement.
It is important to note that under this abortion restriction, the minor’s parents do not have to consent to their child receiving a medically invasive and life-altering procedure. They simply need to be notified of it.
But apparently, even this requirement is too extreme for abortion advocates. Some, like ACLU’s communications director Ed Yohnka, claim that this kind of legislation is burdensome to women and that it “unnecessarily puts at risk minors who aren’t able to tell a parent why they want to terminate a pregnancy.”
The truth is, repealing this law does nothing to protect minor girls–in fact, it puts them at even greater risk of abuse and neglect. Repealing the Parental Notice of Abortion Act will effectively eliminate parents from the conversation of their child’s health and make minors even more vulnerable to predators. Without any kind of parental notice, nothing stands in the way of abusers and traffickers taking young girls into abortion clinics and forcing them to receive abortions.
Supporters of the repeal argue in the name of safety for underage pregnant girls, but there may be more to the story. They know full well that parental involvement actually reduces the amount of abortions. In other words, it reduces business to the abortion industry. Since 2012, the year before the Parental Notification Law took effect, the number of abortions administered to minors has dropped by 55%. This means that each year, the law has saved approximately 1,000 lives.
Even before Terry Cosgrove made his comment back in December, we have been aware that this law sits in a precarious position in Illinois. For that reason, our lobbyists in Springfield have been vigilantly watching for any type of bill which would seek to undercut the parental notice law in any way.
Friday, February 14th, was the deadline for introducing bills in both the house and the senate. After examining thousands of incoming bills, Illinois Right to Life Action Lobbyists Ralph Rivera and Molly Malone reported that there were no bills proposing a repeal or amendment of the law. However, this does not necessarily mean that abortion supporters won’t seek other means of repealing parental notification. It is possible that their strategy is to hold off on making any kind of move until after the primary elections are over.
In the meantime, we encourage you to take action and tell your state lawmakers to oppose any efforts to repeal or amend the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Removing parents from the matter of their daughter’s health is an attack on parental rights and on the dignity of the human person. This kind of legislation would have a disastrous effect, harming both unborn children and the very group which the repeal supposedly “benefits”–underage girls.
You can learn more about the Parental Notice of Abortion Act here: https://illinoisrighttolife.org/illinois-parental-notice-of-abortion-law/