Illinois Abortion Law Blocked By Judge After Earlier Clearance

CHICAGO — Just hours after a state board voted Wednesday to allow the enforcement of a long-debated Illinois law requiring a teenage girl's parents be notified before she has an abortion, a judge issued a temporary restraining order putting the measure back on hold.

The order will remain in effect until the judge can hear arguments on the issue. Cook County Judge Daniel Riley said he felt the American Civil Liberties Union, which sought the order, "demonstrated the distinct possibility of irreparable harm."

Illinois' law was passed in 1995, but never enforced because of various court actions. Thirty-five other states have similar laws, which meant some teens seeking abortions came to Illinois for them.

"This is a dumping ground for other states," said Joseph Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League. "You go look at the license plates at the abortion clinics."

Allowing the law to take effect raised the possibility that "young women in this state would be abused, they would be kicked out of their homes," Lorie Chaiten, head of the Illinois ACLU's reproductive rights project, said after the court hearing.

Assistant Illinois attorney general Thomas Ioppolo argued against the restraining order.

"Why does Illinois have to have a law that doesn't take the parents into account?" Ioppolo said. "The idea of having parental notification serves legitimate interests."

Earlier Wednesday, the state's Medical Disciplinary Board had voted not to extend a 90-day grace period on the law that had been put in place in August. Susan Hofer, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said that vote meant the law had gone into effect. After Riley's ruling, though, Hofer said the department is barred from enforcing it.

Thomas Brejcha, president of the Chicago-based Thomas More Society Pro-Life Law Center, called Illinois is "an island of abortion in the Midwest."

The law requires doctors to notify the parents or guardians of girls 17 or younger 48 hours before the teens get abortions. It requires no notice in a medical emergency or in cases of sexual abuse, and a provision allows girls to bypass parental notification by going to a judge.

Planned Parenthood of Illinois has been providing notification since August, spokeswoman Beth Kanter said. If a teen said she wasn't comfortable letting a parent or guardian know, Planned Parenthood had referred her to another provider who was using the grace period, Kanter said. After the judge's Wednesday ruling, Kanter said notification would no longer be provided.

"We believe that government cannot and should not mandate this communication," Kanter said. "Most teens do seek their parents' advice and counsel ... but in some cases safe and open communication isn't possible."

The Parental Notice of Abortion Act was not enforced when it was passed because the Illinois Supreme Court refused to issue rules spelling out how judges should handle appeals of the notification requirement. The court issued those rules in 2006.

But last year, a federal judge again refused to allow enforcement, saying the law still failed to give teenagers workable judicial options to notifying their parents. In July, a federal appeals court lifted the injunction on the 1995 version. Then in August, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation granted doctors the 90-day grace period.

Comments

[TchoupitoulasCanal]

I'm an OB nurse who has seen my fair share of young (and by young I mean YOUNG...I have three patients under the age of 13 who will be delivering within the next 4 weeks) girls who show up at my clinic pregnant. What I have found to be a predominant theme is that these young girls are SCARED out of their minds and are having difficulty wrapping their heads around the enormity of their current situation.

I'm all for laws that keep parents informed, I think a proper decision is a rational decision that can be talked through by people who truly have the best interest of the young girl and the baby in mind. However, I also think they need to be tempered by a young girl's right to privacy...and I believe this is where the sticky widget rears its ugly head.

The greater issue is the one that is always left out of most legislation...how do we keep our young women from finding themselves in these situations in the first place? We have to be realistic and know that our current methods aren't effective.

[Texas Aggie]

While individual privacy is part of it, a much bigger part is that the kid knows what will happen to her if her parents find out. If the kid was in a situation where she got pregnant, I would suspect that many of them never learned from their parents how to avoid pregnancy because there just wasn't any communication. If the parents ever said anything, it was a command not to be a slut. The Palin family has shown just how effective that is. Now is not the time to start communicating because many of these kids are going to be communicated with by a baseball bat.

[joeyfoto]

"This is a dumping ground for other states," said Joseph Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League."

NO. Illinois is not a "dumping ground" it is a place of refuge from young women who have a difficult decision to make and either face abuse from their parents or are simply so afraid to tell them that they seek refuge in another state. The health needs of these young women are being hounded out of states that refuse to recognize their legitimate concerns in favor of the fanatical ideology of those who have zero interest in women's health but only in imposing their religious opinion on all Americans. They will intrude their religion into civil society as far as we will let them. STOP the anti-choice crusade right here.

As I have said in other places, if these parents had a relationship with their daughters where they deserved to be told, they would be the first to know. So called "conservatives" demand that the state intrude into private matters to enforce family structures which do not exist. While they endlessly push theocratic nonsense in the name of public health, these ideologues have no concern for the harm they do.

[Texas Aggie]

Do you ever get tired of telling people the obvious? When people don't want to hear the truth, it is amazing how skilled they are at denial.

[knucklelady]

Well put.

[Crack-A-Toe]

I am confused. We want our parents to be responsible parents. We always blame parents for any, any misbehavior of his child, and yet we do not want them to get involved in this life-changing decision? WE want parents to guide their children to make better and right choices in life so that they would lead a life doing the right thing and making the right choices. Yet, we have this kind of law that contradicts the very essence of parenthood.

[Crack-A-Toe]

I am all for Parental Notification. Parents need to be notified.

[MsLiz]

Where is this perfect place where you live?

[joeyfoto]

Do you have a teenage daughter? Would your daughter tell you if she got pregnant? If not, how could you blame the state, for the fact that your own daughter did not trust you? If you are certain, as I am, that your daughter would come to you for advice and support in that decision, can you imagine the sort of parent whose daughter would rather drive to another state to get help?

This law exposed young women to great risks. Please, think about that.

[endlessirony]

So you basically want the big bad evil government to help you talk to your daughter? I was not aware that the government is supposed to help you know your children you gave birth to and live with.

[Realist1965]

It's not that complicated unless you don't believe in our legislative system. Most liberals only choose the parts that are convenient to them and then cry to ACLU and activist judges to change what is law for what they do not like. Notification is a different topic than your choice on abortion altogether. Given the caveats that are in the law to avoid major issues, this is sound and reasonable protection of families and individuals alike.

[RainbowPhoenix]

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable to throw girls into abusive situations.

[mrpuddles]

What's the law about notification in ....Alaska?

[comrade leviathan]

I'm very pro-choice, but I really don't understand the standard pro-choice argument on this one. We're not talking about a WOMAN'S right to choose. We're talking specifically about children. Would we really expect that a 15 year old girl with the money to pay for it should be allowed to get breast implants without their parents being notified? That's ridiculous.

I understand that there will be situations where the parents will not allow an abortion if they are notified of their daughter's intent. But even in the most bizarre example of this involving religious or other types of abuse to the girl, that's still a Social Services issue and not an issue of freedom. We're still talking about a child, and unless we lower the legal age of adulthood, the parents are still responsible fully for the well-being of their child, whatever they determine that to be.

[texastrixie]

I agree. I support abortion, late-term abortion, any kind of abortion. But, if you are underage and not responsible enough to handle birth-control, then I think that is adequate evidence that parental involvement is needed. While I think this will end up with more teenage girls being forced to carry a baby to term against their will, the parents need to step in to assure the abortion facility is safe, and that the girl has adequately informed the physician of her medical history. Sex is an adult activity. The very young and pregnant need supervision in this area, even if it is after-the-fact.

[Texas Aggie]

No. What it is evidence of is that parental involvement has been lacking for a long time and this is not the time for some authoritarian parent to inflict their personal hang-ups on a defenseless kid. If the girl is afraid to tell her parents, there is a reason, and it is usually her own sense of self-preservation. Her parents have made it clear how they would react to the news. For those girls who tell their parents, it is because there was already a line of communication and trust and they don't need a law to tell their parents. For the girls who are afraid to tell them, it is because the trust is not there, and generally for reason.

[RainbowPhoenix]

Your lack of experiance dealing with Social Services is showing.

[comrade leviathan]

Experience dealing with Social Services isn't even relevant. An issue of abuse is their domain. It's not something that needs to be legislated against.

[JBVT]

Where were all these so-called "pro life" whoopies during the Inquisition, the uncountable Pogroms, 1930's and 1940's?

Well, they were working overtime...

[John Russell]

Where were you?

[calibabe]

As a minor . . . It is often not safe to tell parents . . . you got a speeding ticket, yet parents or guardians need to be present in court. Heck, in some counties you can't take an on-line traffic school course without a signed affidavit from a parent. It is not safe to tell you got an 'F' yet schools send report cards to the house. You can't get an ear, nose or any other body part piercing without parental consent. You can not enter into any legally binding contracts and a Doc can't give you a vaccination without parental consent. This law doesn't require consent, just notification for what is arguably a more major life event than any of the above mentioned items.

[MsLiz]

Pregnancy doesn't wait.

[hoopesaz]

Doesn't wait for what?

[Maezeppa]

Pregnancy is different. Young women must be able to obtain a safe, legal and private abortion.

[hoopesaz]

And the law provides options for girls in dangerous situations to do so without parental notification. But I agree with the poster, a parent has the right to be informed about their child.

[JEP57]

What this is really all about when parental notification laws are blocked is a contempt for and an attempt to undermine parental authority or control over their children by certain individuals or groups who have issues with that. If your minor child was injured at school and sent to the ER, wouldn't you want to be notified? Why should most parents suffer and be kept in the dark because of a minority of instances where a girl would maybe get abused by a parent if they found out she was pregnant. Thats what the family courts are for.

[TeresaInPa]

trouble reading? The vast majority of teen seeking abortion also seek the counsel and help from their parents. When they do not seek parental guidance there is a good reason. Abortion is NOT the same as getting a broken nose on the play ground. It is an intensely person choice even for a teen age girl. They too have a right to do as they want with their bodies.

[JEP57]

A 14 year old girl does NOT have that choice. She's below the age of consent for medical proceedures. A guardian or parent has to make that decision. Why is the medical proceedure of abortion the only proceedure that's just a "personal" choice, unless of course it's been politicized by people who have their own axes to grind.

[TheSojourner]

I know first hand what the consequences are of illegal abortion. When I and my sibling were small, I found out that my mother resorted to getting some sort of drug to cause a medical abortion from a pharmacist who was also a family friend. Thia was way before Roe v. Wade and I'm sure it was considered safe, back then. I'm also sure it was a difficult, and heart rending decision, but seemed the only solution at the time, whatever the reason.

To make this long story short, there were complications, because the effect wasn't complete. My mother started hemorrhaging and had to be rushed to the hospital. She almost died, she had to undergo a D&C, and this resulted in a herniated situation. At any rate she did eventually recover. I don't know a lot of the details, this was pieced together when I became an adult. That is why this law mustn't pass. Anything that restricts legal abortions, could possibly cause the death of a young or older woman. An unborn anything, is just that, UNBORN. You cannot kill something that isn't BORN. These so called pro lifers don't know what the word UNBORN means, I guess. Someone said the pro lifers concerns start at conception and ends at birth. I'm beginning to think that's the case.

[MsLiz]

Thanks for sharing. Those who did not live prior to Roe v. Wade have no idea what was going on.

I understand that Dominican women in NYC go to their neighborhood pharmacy and ask for a medicine to "bring on their period." It causes an abortion. The culture disapproves of surgical abortions, so this is what women do.

[KIVPossum]

This is a problem for me even as supporter of abortion. I think one of the jobs of a parent is to monitor their children's actions and guide them to responsible adulthood.

Certainly there should be 'outs' so a girl could avoid parental notification if there was any fear she would face repercussions at home, or if there was any indication there was sexual abuse or incest. These should be set up easy and quick to obtain.

[RainbowPhoenix]

Or better yet, don't require parental notification at all. The vast majority of girls will tell their parents without a legal requirement to do so. The plan you describe would do nothing but stigmatize girls with legitimate reasons not to tell their parents while adding more barriers.

[KIVPossum]

You may be right. In a healthy family relationship the girl would probably talk to her parents, or at least her mom.

[eristeleute]

Agreed.

In addition, studies have shown that judges rarely grant the bypass procedure, meaning that girls have to justify the actions that led to their pregnancy as well as their reasons for being unable to get parental approval (or notification), all with the end result of a "NO" from the judge.

[med1inVA]

Actually, notifying the parents is a violation of doctor-patient confidentiality. I'd get them on the Hipaa laws. And yes people under the age of seventeen do get that confidentiality too.

[KIVPossum]

Every time I took my sons for treatment I had to sign and give permission. What was discussed between them and the doctor was private. Their treatment was not.

[MsLiz]

They wanted you to pay the bill.

[MsLiz]

The caselaw requires that these laws have a judicial bypass. Courts are supposed to approve the abortion if the petitioner is well informed and mature enough to make her own decision.

I represented these teens in juvenile court. One, a virgin, was raped by a coach the summer before she started college. Another had one child with sickle cell and knew that her unborn would too. One was removed from her parents' custody due to neglect, and became pregnant by her custodian's step-son. One worked full time and supported herself, but was not yet eighteen.

One was fourteen and feared her parents would not let her go to parties again. She did not get a court order, told her parents, who took her to a local clinic immediately. Another waited until her boyfriend thought he had enough money, a bad mistake. She was twenty weeks pregnant and the petition was denied.

There is nothing wrong with Illinois' law in my opinion, as long as the young women know that the clinic will notify the parents and that they can go to court if this is a problem.

The problem with the judicial bypass is when judges don't follow the law and refuse to grant petitions, knowing that they can delay the procedure until they are reversed on appeal and maybe it will be too late.

Don't bother telling me I will go to hell. I believe I have a place in heaven for my work with these women.

[Eric Roberts]

Thank you for your service Liz...

[scottyknows]

The government should not be in the business of trying to fix every "What if?" situation. They are endless.

The people legally responsible for the girl should be notified before she has any major surgery.

[MsLiz]

How do you define major surgery? Does it include the pill form of abortion?

And what do you mean by legally responsible? Liable for child support? Criminally culpable for her conduct?

If you think the government should not be in this business, why do you conclude that the government should require parental notification? Sounds contradictory to me.

[RachelMc]

dont confuse IT by using logic....

[frankbaldwin]

No disrespect intended . . . in my lifetime i have known quite a few young women who got abortions - all of them were in their teens.
None of these girls were careless, or irresponsible or promiscuous.
Abortion is a deeply personal painful and hard decision to have to make no matter what age.
Nobody has any right passing judgment on those who have had to make this decision.
In my youth i had a friend who was being sexually abused by her stepfather. At first her mom did not believe her.
Sometimes people with good relationships with their kids have a hard time understanding rules designed to protect girls who are suffering abuse within their families.
These situations do exist; they are not imagined or made up.
The whole experience is devastating enough; one should never be made to “wait.”
Respect women. Keep abortion safe and legal. That is being “ pro life “.

[scottyknows]

Is it too much to ask for the people responsible for her in every legal way be notified before she has major surgery?

[RachelMc]

what major surgery?

[bipolarbear]

That sounds reasonable. The problem is we don't know how the people "legally responsible for her" will react. And, speaking of legally: once that baby is born, the teen mother is the person "legally responsible" for the baby's well being. Not her parents.

[EbonBear]

The vast majority of abortions do not involve major surgery. Not that I imagine you care.

[TeresaInPa]

yes, because it is her business and if she has not talked to parents there is a good reason.