UPDATE x1: The controlling Illinois House Democrats voted to repeal the 1995 Parental Notification law Wednesday night and the measure will be signed into law by Governor JB Pritzker – another blow to parents' rights in Illinois, activists are saying.
PALATINE—Following a contentious vote last night in the Illinois House of Representatives to repeal the Parental Notification Act, State Representative Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) released the following statement:
The Democratic legislators who voted yes tonight acted shamefully and recklessly against minor girls and their parents. They ignored the opinion of most Illinois residents–including a majority of pro-choice residents, according to polls.
Parents deserve the right to know about their children’s health care, especially for a procedure such as abortion. This legislation not only strips parents of the right to be informed—to help their daughters in this most difficult circumstance—it also increases the likelihood that the sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking of minor girls will continue undetected.
SPRINGFIELD – Governor Pritzker and Illinois Democrats are moving to keep parents out of being involved with their minor daughters' medical decisions – specifically, a measure that would open the way for minor girls in Illinois and surrounding states to come to Illinois to get abortions without their parents' knowledge.
The Illinois Senate majority, in a 33 to 22 vote Tuesday night, moved the effort a step closer towards total repeal.
That moved the fast-tracked effort to the Illinois House and for discussion in committee Wednesday.
The Parental Notification law was passed in Illinois in 1995, during the one two-year period that Democrats were not in the majority in Illinois' House nor Senate. Republican Governor Jim Edgar signed the measure into law.
A local TV station covered the effort by focusing on the number of pastors and clergy that visited lawmakers Tuesday to oppose the measure:
