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Can Illinois Join Alaska?

parentalnoticeOn Wednesday the Ms. Magazine Blog reported, “Yesterday, the Alaskan primary ballot included a measure to institute a parental notification law for minors seeking abortions. Unfortunately, the law passed.”

That last sentence sums up the attitude of radical feminists, Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and others who seek the breakdown of the traditional family.

Rather than see parental involvement in an adolescent’s health care — in this case, surgery or drugs to kill her unborn baby — as a positive influence in a young girl’s life, they view a parent’s role as intrusive, if not downright abusive.

The Family under Attack

In the last half century the family has been under attack on all sides. The radical feminists attacked any traditional feminine role, including motherhood, teaching, nursing, anything that involves the natural, nurturing tendencies of a woman. They embraced the notion that sex should have nothing to do with reproduction and separated intimacy from love.

The resulting contraceptive culture has spawned easy divorce, a plummeting birthrate, sky-rocketing rates of unwed pregnancy and the notion that parents should have nothing to do with their teens’ choices if sex is involved. All because hardly anyone understands the true meaning of marriage and family.

It seems like a no-brainer that parents should be at least notified if their children are about to have surgery. After all, as we are always reminded, they cannot take an aspirin or get their ears pierced without parental consent.

But when it comes to abortion, its radical proponents don’t want anything to stand in the way of getting rid of an unborn baby. So mom and dad have to get out of the way.

Never mind that if something goes wrong at the abortion clinic, the parents will have to be there to take care of their minor daughter. If she should suffer depression, spend her days in tears or lose interest in school and friends, it is the parents who will try to figure out what is going on with her.

Illinois Still Dragging Its Feet on Parental Notice

Alaska became the 39th state of enact a parental involvement law. In five of those states, including Illinois, the laws have been enjoined and are not in force. Here in Illinois the Parental Notice Act was signed into law in 1995! It is still not enforced.

And Lisa Madigan, Illinois’ Attorney General, is siding with the ACLU against enforcing the law, even though it is her job to enforce the laws of the State of Illinois. Illinois’ law has been declared constitutional and is being held hostage by a court that is in the back pocket of the ACLU.

The Chicago-based Thomas More Society, Pro-Life Law Center has filed a motion with the Illinois Supreme Court, asking the high court to rule on the state’s Parental Notice Law rather than let it sit in the Appellate Court any longer while the ACLU and the Attorney General stall to keep the law inactive.

Sidewalk counselors are well aware that Illinois has become the Midwest’s center for secret teen abortions. All the neighboring states have parental notice laws. So the license plates in the parking lots of Illinois’ abortion clinics are often from Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Iowa and Kentucky.

Illinois should be ashamed.

Apparently Lisa Madigan agrees with Ms. Magazine that it is “unfortunate” that the law was ever passed by the legislature and signed by the governor, who, as it happens, was pro-abortion, but at least understood the role of parents in a teenage girl’s health decisions.

You can take action to help protect teenage girls in Illinois. Call Attorney General Madigan’s office at 312-814-3000. Tell her to support the Thomas More Society’s motion to transfer the parental notice case to the Illinois Supreme Court. Maybe Illinois can join Alaska in protecting teens and guaranteeing that their parents get a chance to do their job.

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