Defending Life 2008
Table of Contents
Illinois 
#38 Most Pro-life State
Overview
In recent years, Illinois has been plagued by Governor Rod Blagojevich's unilateral decisions regarding human life. In 2005, the Governor attacked the authority of the state legislature by issuing an Executive Order mandating that pharmacy owners who dispense contraceptives provide emergency contraception "without delay." In 2006, the Governor continued his unchecked use of power by requiring that pharmacies post signs stating that women can purchase emergency contraception over the counter at any pharmacy in Illinois. He also issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Public Health to develop a grant program for finding treatments and cures from destructive embryo research. In 2007, the state codified this allocation of funds.
Abortion and Protection of the Unborn and Newly Born
Overall Assessment: Somewhat Protective
Women's Health & Safety
- Illinois' law prohibiting a physician from performing an abortion on a minor under the age of 18 without providing 48 hours notice to one parent has been declared unconstitutional and enjoined.
- IIllinois' abortion clinic regulations are not uniformly applied to all of the state's abortion clinics.
- Only physicians licensed by the state of Illinois may perform abortions. A chiropractor's 1978 challenge to Illinois' requirement was rejected.
- Illinois taxpayers are required to fund so-called "medically necessary" abortions, essentially funding abortion-on-demand given the federal courts' broad definition of "health" in the context of abortion.
- Illinois prohibits organizations that receive state funds from using those funds to provide abortion counseling or to make referrals for abortion.
- Illinois requires that emergency rooms provide information on emergency contraception to sexual assault victims.
Protection for the Unborn & Newly Born
- Under Illinois criminal law, the killing of an unborn child at any stage of gestation is defined as a form of homicide.
- Illinois defines nonfatal assaults on an unborn child as a crime.
- Illinois law requires that viable infants who survive an abortion must be given appropriate medical care.
Bioethics Laws
Overall Assessment: Dangerous
- Under the Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning Prohibition Act, Illinois permits and funds destructive embryo research. While the Act prohibits cloning-to-produce-children, it specifically allows for "therapeutic cloning" -- thus making it a "clone-and-kill" law.
- Illinois mandates insurance coverage for in vitro fertilization and other forms of assisted reproductive technology.
- Accident or health insurers cannot use genetic testing information for nontherapeutic purposes unless voluntarily submitted and favorable to the insured.
- Illinois regulates the profession of genetic counseling, encouraging that couples be advised on the probability of birth defects and other genetic information. In essence, the state supports genetic testing used to encourage or counsel in favor of abortion, as opposed to treatment.
End of Life Laws
Overall Assessment: Marginal
- In Illinois, assisted suicide is a felony.
- Illinois provides no effective protection for a patient's wishes for life-sustaining treatment as expressed through his/her advance directive, and there is no duty to provide life-sustaining treatments while a patient waits for transfer to another facility.
Healthcare Rights of Conscience Laws
Overall Assessment: Marginal
Participation in Abortion:
- Illinois protects the civil rights of all healthcare providers, whether individuals, institutions, or payers (public or private), who conscientiously object to participating in any healthcare services, including abortion. The law includes protection for medical and nursing students, counselors, and social workers.
- However, through his 2005 Executive Order, Governor Blagojevich has directly threatened the broad applicability and the comprehensive protection provided by this statute. The Order demands that pharmacies dispense contraceptives -- including emergency contraception -- "without delay." In other words, a pharmacist must provide emergency contraception or transfer the prescription, even if such an action is a violation of his/her conscience. In essence, pharmacy owners who dispense contraceptives are mandated to provide emergency contraception on demand.
- Health insurance plans that provide prescription coverage must also provide coverage for contraception. No exemption is provided for religious employers.
Participation in Research Harmful to Human Life:
- Illinois protects the civil rights of all healthcare providers who conscientiously object to participating in procedures such as human cloning and destructive embryo research.
What Happened in 2007
- Illinois amended its Abandoned Newborn Infant Protection Act to prohibit persons accepting an infant under the Act from publicly discussing the circumstances surrounding the infant's legal surrender.
- Illinois enacted the Stem Cell Research and Human Cloning Prohibition Act, which permits and funds destructive embryo research; prohibits cloning-to-produce-children while allowing "therapeutic cloning;" and codifies the $15 million in grants that the Governor has awarded over the last couple of years.
- Illinois also considered measures banning abortion; regulating abortion facilities; promoting adult stem cell and umbilical cord blood research; and, unfortunately, making emergency contraception even more easily accessible.
- In addition, the state considered an omnibus Reproductive Privacy Act.
- Illinois also considered legislation supporting the state's prohibition on assisted suicide.
- Further, Illinois considered legislation allowing healthcare providers to conscientiously object to participation in abortions.
- Illinois appealed a federal district court decision holding that the State must disburse "Choose Life" license plates. The case remains pending before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
- In October 2007, a settlement was reached in one of several cases challenging Governor Blagojevich's 2005 Executive Order regarding the provision of emergency contraception. The parties agreed that pharmacy owners, not individual pharmacists, would bear the burden of stocking and dispensing emergency contraception. However, other challenges to the law remain.
Opportunities for 2008
- Illinois does not have an informed consent law requiring that women receive complete and accurate information about the risks of and alternatives to abortion.
- Illinois does not have an enforceable parental involvement law or universally applicable abortion clinic regulations.
- Illinois maintains no comprehensive measures regulating assisted reproductive technologies.
- Because Illinois does not protect the wishes of patients as expressed in their advance directives, patients are vulnerable to the wishes of physicians and hospitals unless the state enacts a statute mandating transfer and requiring life-sustaining treatment pending transfer (and without a time limit).
- Illinois does not provide an exemption to religious employers from the state's mandate that health insurance plans provide coverage of contraception.
