Second Year Of 95th Illinois General Assembly

Illinois General Assembly Spring Session Report

By Ralph Rivera, ICL State Lobbyist

 

The Illinois General Assembly ended its Spring legislative session on May 31st, just meeting the deadline for passing a budget that requires a simple ma­jority of votes for passage. The Illinois Constitution requires that any bill, including a budget bill, that has an imme­diate effective date and passes after May 31st requires a 3/5’s majority of votes for passage. Last year, the General Assembly went into record overtime when it did not pass a budget by May 31st.

According to most estimates, the budget just passed is about $2 billion out of balance with the revenues projected for the new fiscal year that starts on July 1st. Since the Illinois Constitution also requires that there be balanced budgets, this presents problems for the governor and the General Assembly. Discussions have been under way to try and resolve the problem and the General Assembly will probably need to come back some time before the end of the year to deal with it. They will certainly be in after the November elections for the fall veto session.

Pro-Life Issues In This Session

The effort in this General Assembly for pro-life was to stop many anti-life bills. A major anti-life legislation that was stopped this year was HB 5615 (Currie, et al), The Reproductive Justice and Access Act. 1) It would have created a state Roe v. Wade in statute and created a public policy in support of abortion, Plan B and other abortifacient drugs. 2) This bill would have nullified the Paren­tal Notice of Abortion Act and any other abortion legislation that would in any way “deny or interfere with a pregnant woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy” 3) It would have given the right of individuals to go to court to stop any action contrary to this Act. 4) The bill would have insured taxpayer-funded abortions for any reason. 5) It would have forced all medical personnel, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists to “assist” in obtaining abortion services even if they object to the “services” 6) This bill would have required all public schools to teach condom-training comprehensive sex education for children.

Again and Again

The E.R.A., which passed out of a house committee earlier this year, was also stopped from moving due to lack of votes. House Joint Resolution Constitu­tional Amendment 2 (HJRCA 2) (Lang) seeks to ratify the decades old federal resolution that failed to be ratified by Illinois in the nineteen-seventies and early nineteen-eighties. Yes, it is still being worked by die-hards who refuse to give up on this resolution, but don’t want to play by the rules set forth for ratifying constitutional amendments.

Privacy and Confidentiality

HB 4623 (Feigenholtz) would have opened up the original birth certificates to adopted children, thus revealing the names and other identifying information of birth certificates. This would change the rules on “privacy rights and confidenti­ality” for young girls who had decided on adoption over abortion over the decades. The message to young women struggling now with this decision is your “privacy and confidentiality” can be affected now and in the future if the General Assembly so chooses. Leaders within “crisis pregnancy centers” have informed us that the number one concern of the thousands of young women they counsel on adoption is “confiden­tiality”! The bill, in the Illinois House, was stopped for now as a majority of legislators, both pro-life and others had concerns on the “confidentiality” issues as well as abortion issues.

Plan B

HB 2285 and HB 4390 were prevented from moving in the Illinois Senate when pro-life opposed a provi­sion in the Comprehensive Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to include “oral contraceptives” which the sponsors admitted includes the abortifacient drug “Plan B”. The state CHIP plan is meant to provide only essential health insurance coverage for persons who cannot obtain private health insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

Stem Cell Research

Efforts to put $25 million into the budget for stem cell research, including embryonic and human cloning stein cell research were thwarted to some extent when the amount was reduced to one-tenth or $2.5 million. We believe that Pro-life efforts this year to educate legislators away from using state funds for embryonic stem cell research were helpful in reducing the amount.

Caution

While Pro-Life was successful in stopping this bad legislation, technically the legislation is still alive through the veto session. Earlier this year grass­roots response to HB 5615 prevented it from even a committee hearing. Keep in touch with your legislators. 

 

You may contact them as follows: 1) Call the state operator at 217-782-2000 while they are in session; 2) write them at the Illinois State Capitol, Springfield, IL 62706; or 3) email them (find their email address on the Illinois General Assembly website - www.ilga.gov.