South Cook News

Illinois Right to Life Action Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr believes that lawmakers purposely rushed the state's controversial new abortion bill through the legislative process to hide it from the public as best they could.

“Legislators knew that this bill was incredibly unpopular, and they were hoping to draw as little attention to it as possible,” Knorr told South Cook News. “Legislators forced this bill as a result of a national effort to leverage Illinois and turn it into an abortion oasis for the entire country. The abortion industry is fearful that Roe v. Wade will be overturned and abortion laws across the country will be at risk. For this reason, they are hoping to remove all restrictions on abortions in Illinois and protect access to abortion at a fundamental level so that they can continue to ship women in from other states.”

Senate Bill 25 makes it a fundamental right for pregnant women to have an abortion and states that a “fertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have independent rights under the law.”

Illinois Right to Life Action Executive Director Mary Kate Knorr | https://illinoisrighttolife.org

“This bill has officially turned Illinois into the abortion capital of the U.S.,” Knorr said. “‘Come here to get your third-trimester abortion that's paid for with taxpayer dollars and performed by someone who isn't a doctor in an unregulated, uninspected clinic.’ That's the message. And the only people who benefit are abortionists and their staffs. This bill endangers women by removing all licensure and inspection requirements for abortion clinics across the state. In a state where nursing homes, tanning salons and restaurants are all inspected, not a single Planned Parenthood has ever been checked to verify it meets sanitation and safety standards by the Department of Public Health.”

While sponsors of bill claim that most Illinoisans support this legislation, Knorr disagrees.

“The notion that the majority of Illinoisans support this legislation is a lie, point-blank,” she said. “Four thousand people showed up at a protest in March that brought the Capitol to max capacity. The number of opposition witness slips was overwhelming. Eighteen thousand people filed witness slips to oppose these bills in committee.”

Some Democratic lawmakers have even gone against their supposed Catholic faith by voting for the bill, Knorr noted.

“[Reps.] Anthony DeLuca and Karina Villa are just two examples of the overwhelming number of Catholics in the Illinois legislature who run on their Catholic roots when they're campaigning, then get down to Springfield and show absolutely no loyalty to Catholic values,” Knorr said. “They should be ashamed of themselves. Catholics across the state trust them based on shared ideology – and this is an utter betrayal, as it's an ideology they run on but do absolutely nothing to uphold.”