Illinois Dems Repeal State’s Last Anti-Abortion Law

Illinois Democrats on Wednesday passed a bill that allows minors to get abortions without parental notification, leaving the state without a single law curbing abortion access.

Both chambers of the Illinois statehouse repealed the Parental Notification Act, which requires parents to be notified 48 hours in advance before their child gets an abortion. Pro-abortion politicians, lobbyists, and leaders celebrated the repeal as the final act in establishing abortion on demand. Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker (D.) is expected to sign the bill, which one state representative praised for making the state "100% pro-choice." One Illinois pro-abortion lobbyist called it "the absolute last bill that I will ask anyone to take in the General Assembly because [passage] will bring Illinois back to what Roe v. Wade was in 1973,"

Democratic lawmakers across the country have scrambled in recent weeks to expand abortion access in response to the enactment of a six-week abortion ban in Texas. Democrats in the House of Representatives passed a bill in September that would codify Roe v. Wade and overturn all pro-life laws nationwide. The bill is not expected to pass in the Senate.

Illinois Democrats emphasized the need to repeal the parental notification mandate because they said it deters women in abusive relationships from getting an abortion. Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America, said this argument is completely backward.