By definition, obstetric and other perinatal care providers always have two patients: a mother and her unborn baby. Both parties are considered equal in value and worthy of the full attention and effort of the provider, and in no case are they viewed as set against one another. Foundationally, obstetricians and midwives are trained to ensure the health and flourishing of both mother and child.
But as the pro-abortion lobby in Illinois has grown bolder and more desperate, especially considering last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, there is now an expectation that a growing number of perinatal healthcare providers should be permitted to destroy the very lives they have been trained to guard.
Among other amendments to current state law that endanger the health and safety of preborn babies, HB 3 and HB 1046, both sponsored by pro-abortion Representative Mary Flowers (D-Chicago), seek to expand the list of providers who may perform abortions in Illinois to include—if you can believe it—midwives.
It’s hard enough to believe that some physicians, who take an oath to “first, do no harm,” perform abortions and, in a growing number of states, participate in physician-assisted suicide, but it simply boggles the mind to consider midwives joining in the practice of ending preborn lives. Midwifery is an ancient field; one whose history long precedes the quite recent shift of birthing to hospital wards, in the care of labor and delivery nurses and obstetricians. Midwives are even referenced in the book of Exodus as playing a crucial role in SAVING the lives of God’s people when Pharaoh sought to kill their sons. Under no circumstance have they historically provided abortions. As of right now, Illinois state law prohibits them from performing the barbaric procedures. But that prohibition is now in doubt, thanks to State Representative Flowers and the pro-abortion lobby who fully endorse her work.
The other provisions in these bills are also deeply concerning. For example, in response to growing demand from those who travel to Illinois for abortions in a post-Roe era, these bills would make possible the “co-location” of abortion and birth services in government-funded birth centers. Can you imagine? Depending on which door a mother walks through, her preborn baby may receive care or be killed. It’s even likely the same doctors and midwives would provide both “services.” Does the cognitive dissonance ever become deafening for these men and women? Are their consciences so seared that they can no longer see that they are living in a fatal contradiction?
Another provision removes automatic protections for preborn babies who are born with symptoms and testing that reveals the mother abused illegal drugs and/or alcohol during pregnancy. Until now, the presence of a controlled substance in a baby’s blood, urine, or meconium (first bowel movement) would automatically define the child as “neglected,” allowing for child protective services to step in and, in some cases, remove the child for his or her protection. If passed, this bill will make it so that those protections are only available if a law enforcement agency has a warrant. It’s difficult to imagine how or when this would be enforced in such a pro-abortion environment.
If enacted, these laws would represent the worst delinquency of responsibility by a government body. If there is no recourse for the innocent victim of someone else’s destructive choices, our laws cannot be called just. This is the rare case in which pro-abortion forces are being consistent: they do not view a preborn baby as human; therefore, he is not deserving of justice for something done to him before he is born.
Rep. Flowers’ radical, woke ideology is evident in numerous other parts of the text, from dehumanizing preborn babies by replacing the word “baby” with “newborn,” to scrubbing biological reality by replacing the word “woman” with “parent.” The majority of what is contained in these two bills is fatal to the most vulnerable among us, and yet it is shrouded in terms like “dignity,” “liberty,” and “justice.” While Rep. Flowers and her supporters claim they wish to advance these lofty values, none of them will be available to the precious human lives that will be ended or permanently impaired if these fatally flawed bills are signed into law.
Take ACTION: Click HERE to contact your local state representative and urge him or her to vote against HB 3* and HB 1046* when they come up for a vote on the Illinois House floor. Ask them to acknowledge and protect the sanctity of preborn life, as well as the integrity of those who are trained to deliver these precious babies! (See footnotes below for more information!)
More ACTION: Click HERE to fill out a witness slip in opposition to HB 1046. The Illinois House Public Health Committee has a 9 AM hearing set for Thursday, March 2nd.
-Fill out your name, address, email and phone number. Leave everything else blank or put self.
-Highlight “Opponent” and “Record of Appearance Only.”
-Check Terms of Agreement and click Create Slip.
*HB 1046 would:
- Require the Dept. of Public Health to establish “reproductive health clinics” across the state at nonprofit and public medical facilities that will perform abortions, among other services.
- Allow mid-wives to perform abortions.
- Eliminates “neglected child” designation if controlled substances found in newborn baby’s system.
- Provides no disclosure at all to any governmental unit of any medical tests, including if a newborn child has drugs in their system from the mom.
- Provides for the mother and newborn child to receive medical care based on World Health Organization guidelines and not “generally accepted medical standards.”
- Makes provisions regarding birth certificates for stillborn babies.
*HB 3 (as amended) would:
- Provide no disclosure at all to any governmental unit of any medical tests of mom or newborn, including if a newborn child has drugs in their system from the mom.
- Changes pronouns to gender-neutral (example: “her and her infant” is replaced with “the patient and the patient’s newborn”).
- Provide specified rights for patients that would be posted at various healthcare facilities, community centers, and daycare centers statewide.
- Provide for the mother and newborn child to receive medical care based on World Health Organization guidelines and not “generally accepted medical standards.”
- Make provisions regarding birth certificates for stillborn babies.
