{"id":303563,"date":"2023-12-14T15:45:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T21:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=303563"},"modified":"2023-12-14T18:17:21","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T00:17:21","slug":"pro-life-lawsuit-illinois-pregnancy-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pro-life-lawsuit-illinois-pregnancy-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Following pro-life lawsuit, Illinois backs away from harassing pregnancy centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Illinois will no longer attempt to enforce a law meant to silence and punish pro-life pregnancy centers (PRCs). According to Crain’s Chicago Business<\/a>, on December 12, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul “<\/span>filed the proposed agreement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Western Division in a lawsuit filed this summer by anti-abortion advocates and anti-abortion pregnancy centers. The agreement orders a permanent injunction forbidding enforcement of the act against the plaintiffs.”<\/p>\n

According to an emailed press release from TC Public Relations, the permanent injunction order was signed on December 14 by U.S. District Court Judge Iain D. Johnston. The release notes, “Judge Johnston\u2019s preliminary injunction order<\/a> called SB 1909 ‘stupid and very likely unconstitutional,'” despite the fact that Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told<\/a> “CNN This Morning” in response to the judge’s preliminary injunction that he was “confident this is constitutional. It’s legal.”<\/p>\n

In July, Gov. Pritzker signed into law <\/span>SB 1909<\/span><\/a>, an amendment to the state\u2019s pre-existing Consumer Fraud & Deceptive Business Protection Act that specifically targeted PRCs. This law sought to further dictate the speech of PRCs regarding abortion and claimed that explaining the risks of abortion and instead presenting other life-affirming options instead of abortion was somehow misinformation and deception. The amendment would also have <\/span>allowed<\/span><\/a> the Illinois Attorney General to begin investigations into PRC practices without any complaints of fraud or deception being provided, <\/em>and the AG could potentially penalize PRCs, even to the point of shutting them down.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same day the amendment was signed, the Thomas More Society, the National Institute of Family & Life Advocates, Women\u2019s Help Services and Relevant Pregnancy Options Center, the Pro-Life Action League, and the Rockford Family Initiative all joined together and filed suit against the amendment.<\/p>\n