Crisis Pregnancy Centers Sue Illinois For Forcing Them to Promote Abortion

Maureen Collins | July 11, 2017
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Should pro-life crisis pregnancy centers be required to direct women to abortion providers? 

The state of Illinois thinks so. Last year, the Illinois state Senate passed the Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which requires all health providers in the state to push abortion as an option for pregnant women.

After the law went into effect this January, two pro-life pregnancy centers are suing the state claiming the law violates their First Amendment rights. Pregnancy Aid South Suburbs and 1st Way Pregnancy Support Services, who are being represented by the Thomas More Society, filed the suit in the state capitol of Springfield earlier this year.

Now, the suit encompasses more than 20 pregnancy centers and is heading to federal court in Chicago. The centers' attorney, Thomas Olp, told the Chicago Tribune earlier this month that his clients "cannot in good conscience" provide their patients with a list of abortion providers."

For pro-life health care providers, he explains, this is "material involvement in something that's inherently evil." 

With all the hoopla the pro-abortion lobby is making over informed consent laws that educate women about their unborn babies, you would think they would lobby against any statute that requires health care providers to tell their patients the opposite of what they believe to be true. 

Not so. Lorie Chaiten of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the Tribune that pro-life clinics providing pro-life information to patients is tantamount to attempting to "mislead people with disinformation or withhold information." 

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