First, the good news: the Illinois legislature has passed the Youth Health and Safety Act, repealing the horrendous Parental Notice of Abortion (PNA) law that has caused so much harm to so many pregnant teens, and our wonderful pro-choice Governor J.B. Pritzker is sure to sign it. The new law doesn’t take effect until June 2022, so for now the Judicial Bypass Project to assist teens who for whatever reason just can’t tell their parents is still in full swing. Read more about why it was so important to repeal PNA at Human Rights Watch or at the ACLU of Illinois, watch this powerful video by Dr. Alison Cowett and read Dr. Cowett’s Op-Ed in the Chicago Sun-Times.
And the bad news: The U.S. Supreme Court still refuses to block the Texas law banning abortions and deputizing vigilantes to enforce it. The Texas law is an unprecedented intrusion into the constitutional rights of women and a stunning attack on the rule of law. This article in The Guardian is one of the best to be published about it. And here’s Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, the Tribune editorial, and Rex Huppke’s Trib column.
The right to abortion is safe in Illinois — for now. And Illinois is an island in a sea of hostile states. That’s why the 2022 election is the most important in our lifetimes. We need to strengthen our pro-choice majorities in both houses of the Illinois legislature, and we need to keep reactionaries off the Illinois Supreme Court. Now is the time for every single one of us to step up. Start by joining or renewing your membership in the National Organization for Women, and continue by sending contributions to Personal PAC, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, the ACLU of Illinois, or any of the wonderful groups listed on our Network page.
