SPRINGFIELD – Friday, Governor Rauner signed into law Senate Bill 1564, which requires medical personnel and pregnancy resources centers to refer for abortions and discuss abortion benefits with their clients.
Illinois Right to Life's Emily Zender wrote in response that the Governor's actions were disappointing.
"It's unfortunate that Governor Rauner didn't keep his campaign promise to steer clear of social issues," Zender said.
The governor chose to ignore the pro-life community's efforts to stop the bill's progress.
"We hosted press conferences, wrote op-eds in the most prominent newspapers, educated state and federal legislators, and delivered nearly 6,000 petition signatures to the governor asking him to veto this bill," Zender wrote.
The law does not go into effect until January, 2017.
Zender said that law firms like the Alliance Defense Fund and the Thomas More Society are promising lawsuits. Illinois Right to Life launched a resource page on their website for pregnancy help centers in Illinois to assist them in handling this law. (visit it here.)
The Illinois ACLU's reproductive rights project director Lori Chaiten was elated with Rauner's action:
Governor Bruce Rauner has taken an important step to protect patients in Illinois. The new law carefully balances the needs of patients to get complete information about their medical condition with the ability of health care providers to refuse health care services to which they have a religious or conscience objection. Not surprising, a huge majority of Illinois voters wanted the Health Care Right of Conscience Act balanced in order to include the interests of the patient. That is precisely what this new law does.
When Illinois patients go into an exam room, they need no longer worry that they are being denied medical information based on their health care provider¹s religious beliefs. This is a good measure for all Illinois residents.
More reactions to come …
