Written by Steve Michaelson
People who’ve been around the Illinois State Capitol a while – 10, 20, or even 30 years – experienced a “first” last session. These insiders had seen lots of legislation over the years. Hundreds of thousands of pieces of legislation, in fact. And some legislation bordered on silly. Such as requiring Illinois citizens to wear blue on Mondays. Well, that was never proposed, but you get the idea. Just by sheer numbers, by default there have been some bills that would be considered laughable.
Well, many people thought one bill (SB 1909) this past session outdid any of those past bills in its absurdity. But IFI wasn’t laughing. This bill passed the legislature and was signed into law by the Governor (with a straight face). The law allows the Illinois Attorney General to launch a formal investigation into any crisis pregnancy care center the he/she believes is misleading people. No factual evidence need be gathered. No complaints need to be filed. Only if the Attorney General “believes” something or someone is “misleading,” he can launch the investigation.
If the Attorney General disagrees with information in a pro-life pamphlet, he can launch an investigation. If the Attorney General disagrees with a billboard’s message that “Abortion stops a beating heart,” he can launch an investigation. If the Attorney General even believes the center is about to mislead people but hasn’t yet, the law says, he can launch a formal investigation. Can you say Soviet Union?
A federal judge was not laughing either. When the Thomas More Society appealed to the federal district court to immediately halt the new law, the judge ruled in our favor. The judge granted a motion requested by Thomas More Society attorneys for a preliminary injunction seeking to immediately halt to this tyrannical new law attacking pregnancy care centers. The lawsuit, National Institute of Family Life Advocates et al. v. Raoul, asserts that this law was designed to target crisis pregnancy centers solely because of their concerns about the sanctity of human life.
This issue will still have to be litigated, and that may take months, if not years to work through the courts. Thankfully, though, the law won’t take effect unless the law is somehow ruled constitutional.
Just think of that: an Attorney General writes a law that does not require any factual evidence to conduct an investigation. To knock on your door. To search your premises. To go through your files. All he needs is to “believe” something is “misleading.” A reasonable person might ask: “Were there any complaints to the Attorney General about misleading information or activities at pregnancy care centers?” No, not one filed complaint in the last 10 years. “Well then does the Attorney General also want to protect women from misleading information at abortion clinics?” No, his representative said, abortion clinics are covered under the Deceptive Practices Act and that is sufficient. Aren’t pregnancy care centers covered under the same Deceptive Practices Act? Yes, but that’s not sufficient.
Hopefully, this will go down in flames as just another fight in the culture war. Thank God we still have our First Amendment, and thank God we still have sanity in the courts. Because, let’s face it, in Illinois we know all too well how it feels to have freedoms taken away by our government-knows-best Governor. And we definitely have seen immoral and insane policies pass in Illinois, flying in the face of the most basic common sense and decency. So please thank God tonight for this great victory of freedom and pray for our elected leaders.
