It feels like we just stepped through time into a new era. Not the one we were hoping for, but a new era nonetheless. The morning after Nov. 3, it was apparent that Americans had put far-left Democrats back into power at the national level in Congress. Socialists won high-profile races. Far-left Democrats even took conservative, red territory like it was nothing.

Here at the state level, the results were just as telling. The party that can’t define a woman, thinks boys can become girls, and legislates against the traditional family ad nauseam padded their supermajority by six seats in the Illinois House and six in the Illinois Senate. Quite a spectacle. God help us.

But that’s exactly what keeps us going. God is still on the throne. God is still in control. God’s ways are not our ways. We just have to continue to be faithful. It’s not going to be easy, but God never said it would be. In fact, just the opposite. We must love God and love our neighbor through thick and thin.

What’s next?

Veto Session starts on Nov. 17. It is a six-day session which will likely tackle a couple of major issues – a package aimed at keeping the Bears in Illinois and regulations for data centers regarding energy use and other things. But then the legislature will break for the holidays and come back in January for a new legislative session.

I will be hearing and reporting more about far-left, anti-family legislation being drafted in the weeks ahead. However, I’d like to mention three fights shaping up on different timetables. The immediate one is over whether schools need a parent’s written permission to screen a child for mental health concerns. Then, looking into the next General Assembly, I expect decriminalizing prostitution and outlawing the “abortion-reversal pill” to be major pushes from the progressive wing.

School Mental Health Screenings

In August 2026, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) quietly put out its guidance for school districts to mandate mental health screenings for students in grades 3-12 beginning in the 2027-28 school year. (ISBE Non-Regulatory Guidance for School Districts)

On October 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Education told ISBE to revise its school mental health screening guidance by Friday, November 13. Federal officials said the guidance could lead districts to violate two federal laws governing parental consent and access to student records. The feds demanded revisions, with possible enforcement to follow. Here’s what’s at issue:

1) Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232h

ISBE’s guidance lets districts choose between opt-out and written opt-in, with advice from their lawyers. However, federal law requires prior written parental consent before a minor is required, as part of a covered program, to take a survey or evaluation that reveals protected information, including mental or psychological problems. The U.S. Department of Education says it treats covered surveys administered by teachers, counselors or other school officials as required. Under that interpretation, sending home a notice and screening the child unless a parent objects is insufficient.

2) Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g

ISBE says results generally fall outside the student’s permanent record and tells districts to evaluate whether to keep them as temporary records. Federal officials warned that districts could use separate files to deny parents access. Under FERPA, a result directly related to a student and maintained by the school or someone acting on its behalf generally qualifies as an education record, wherever it is filed. Parents generally have the right to inspect it and seek correction.

So those are the two issues:

a) US Department of Education officials say schools must obtain prior written parental consent when screeners probe a student’s mental or emotional state;

b) they also raised concerns about parents’ access to records under federal student privacy law. Again, the State Board of Education faces a November 13 deadline to respond.

We’ll be watching how Illinois responds and what the screening tools actually ask. Parents should be able to review the questions, give written permission before their child takes a screening, and see the results. I’ll also be looking closely at any questions about sexuality or gender and how schools would interpret a child’s answers. A child’s disagreement with far-left views on those subjects should never be treated as a mental health symptom.

Going for the trifecta?

Illinois has legalized gambling and marijuana, so I look for the third leg of that stool, prostitution decriminalization, to be attempted next. Actually, legislation to decriminalize prostitution was introduced a couple of years ago (HB 3518 and SB 2391).  Those bills didn’t go anywhere, but that is how gambling and marijuana started when they were introduced. The “decriminalize prostitution” movement now has many Democrat sponsors and cheerleaders.

The playbook on passing this sinful stuff is first and foremost, not to mention God, but rather more tax revenue, fewer criminal penalties, and more safety for sex workers. You will hear a lot about safety because the government would be “regulating and protecting” the sex industry workers. What you will not hear a lot about is helping women get out of prostitution and holding exploiters accountable.

Far-left alarmed at “abortion-reversal pills’ success

The far-left is alarmed. Many women are changing their minds about having a chemical abortion and looking to save their children after all. That is indeed unacceptable to promoters of the culture of death. So IFI does expect to see legislation next spring outlawing the life-saving pills that reverse the abortion.

Here’s what’s happening: A girl or woman receives two abortion pills in the mail. She takes the mifepristone, the first abortion pill. She regrets her decision and decides she wants to give the baby life. She doesn’t take the second abortion pill, misoprostol. Rather, she obtains a prescription progesterone pill, or “abortion reversal pill.” This fights off the mifepristone in order to sustain the pregnancy. It is saving many lives and preventing the psychological trauma of abortion to many women.

To outlaw the abortion-reversal pill, the far-left will be attacking its “safety”. Which will be a great irony, of course, because abortion pills are the epitome of harmfulness for women and their babies, of course. But that will be the pitch from the far-left. These unproven drugs are harmful to women; they need to be studied more before they are allowed to be used; and women are being duped by pro-lifers to take these pills against their will.