Which
is why I was amused to learn that the Supreme Court of Illinois issued an
opinion Thursday that upheld one of that ideologically-inclined Legislature’s
most partisan act.
IT
ONLY TOOK 18 years -- which makes it a "teenaged" new law. That may sound extreme. But if one considers how long
issues such as a new Chicago-area airport near Peotone and new casinos for
Chicago have lingered, perhaps this isn’t all that extreme.
The
issue under review on this particular bill was abortion. Specifically,
requiring young girls (under 18, to be specific) to inform their parents if
they have any desire to terminate a pregnancy.
There
were provisions allowing for girls who could convince a judge that their home
situations were too dangerous and that a legitimate reason for excluding the
parents (such as a case where a father impregnates his teenage daughter) to get
around the parental notification.
But
it also set the standards for such waivers so high that it was apparent the
purpose of the bill was to make it all the more difficult for a young woman to
even consider abortion as an option – which is the admitted strategy of the
anti-abortion activists.
IF
IT HAS to be illegal, burden it with so much bureaucratic minutia and partisan
regulation that most women wind up being able to obtain one in a timely enough
manner to comply with the laws that recognize abortion as a legitimate medical
procedure.
The
activists who support women having access to abortion as an option fought this
case all the way through the courts, where it became tangled up in the
time-consuming legalese that causes delays for many issues.
In
fact, the knowledge that there’d be a legal battle is why – even after passing
the bill in the spring of 1995 – the state never made any effort to enforce the
new law.
But
that delay is now over. The Thomas More Society, which likes to get involved in
legal cases related to abortion, says it expects enforcement to take place
“within a matter of days.”
WHILE
BOTH PLANNED Parenthood and Personal PAC (which supports elected officials who
support abortion rights) were upset the fight ended negatively for them, with
the latter calling Thursday “a dark day” for young women.
It
may be so, since it was clear when the Republican-run Legislature of nearly two
decades ago passed this particular measure, they were interested in making an
ideological statement.
They
weren’t interested in addressing the realities that not everyone comes from the
picture-perfect family situation – always trying to claim this was a matter of
parents being allowed to be involved in their children’s lives.
I
personally lost track of the number of times I heard the talking point about a
teenage girl needing parental permission to have an aspirin in school, but did
not require it to end a pregnancy.
THE
WORLD ISN’T as clear-cut a place to live in as some of the conservative
ideologues would like to believe – largely because not everyone fits into the
narrow vision of what people ought to be like.
As
for the outcome, this particular issue is resolved – although I wonder if the
Democratic-dominated Legislature we have now would try to take on a measure
that repeals the new law.
Although
considering this is a Democratic-dominated Legislature that got tangled up in
bureaucratic nonsense when it came to gay marriage this spring, I would expect
the same non-outcome on an abortion-related issue.
Although
the larger point may well be to remember this issue as an example for those
people who complain about Democrats running everything in Illinois government.
DEMOCRATS
WHO CAN’T even “play nice” with each other can’t agree on much, while the
Republican ideologues like to ram through these social issues to impose their
will on us all
Your
pick as to which is worse!
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