March 11, 2005

Many thanks to all Action Alert members who responded to our request for calls to legislators on critical legislation in the past few weeks. We appreciate your assistance! Most important - you should know that your voice is making a difference. Here is a report on a number of issues that were before legislative committees this week.

Reproductive Rights
We saw two positive actions in our efforts to protect reproductive freedom in Illinois this week. The House Health Care Committee this week defeated House Bill 1453, a measure that threatened access to reproductive health care in Illinois by mandating misleading language be presented to women seeking an abortion, threatening physicians with litigation and loss of medical license for failing to read the state-mandated statement to a woman seeking an abortion, and unnecessarily adding to the State's fiscal burden. Most dangerously, House Bill 1453 would have created an undue burden for women seeking abortion services in Illinois. The Committee defeated the legislation by a vote of 5 in favor (Patricia Bailey, Michelle Chavez, Lisa Dugan, JoAnn Osmond and Keith Summers) and 6 opposed (Mary Flowers, Constance Howard, Carolyn Krause, Mark Beaubien, Karen May and Rosemary Mulligan). Let's remember to thank those representatives who voted against this dangerous measure.

On another front, House Bill 984 moved out the House Judiciary I - Civil Law - Committee unanimously this week. The so-called "Born Alive Infant" bill threatened to adversely affect access to reproductive health care services and other health care for pregnant women. After intense negotiations, the Committee adopted language that clearly states that nothing in House Bill 984 affects current abortion law in the State of Illinois. As a result, the ACLU of Illinois dropped our opposition to the original legislation.

Attack on Religious Liberty
We were very disappointed this week that the House Judiciary I -Civil Law -Committee sent House Bill 1063 to the floor of the House by a vote of 9 to 3. The ACLU strongly supports religious liberty, but House Bill 1063 is about bigotry, not religious liberty. Current law already allows religious organizations to require everyone they hire to be of their faith. Current law also allows religious organizations to discriminate in employment on any grounds - race, gender, sexual orientation - for ministerial-like positions. For example, a church can refuse to hire a woman priest or a gay priest, but cannot refuse to hire a janitor because she is a woman or gay. Even worse, House Bill 1063 goes far beyond legal religious liberty protection and allows non religious secular not-for-profits that work "in conjunction" with religious institutions to discriminate in all hiring on all grounds - race, gender, sexual orientation. This provision guts important protections recently enacted under the Illinois Human Rights Act.

ACTION NEEDED: House Bill 1063 now moves to full House for a vote. Please contact your state representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000 and ask to be connected to his/her office. Urge your state representative to oppose House Bill 1063 when it is considered in the full House. You can learn more about this discriminatory proposal at http://www.aclu-il.org/legislative/alerts/hb1063.pdf. If you cannot remember who your state representative is, you can look up that information at http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/SelectOfficialSearch.asp.

Attempts to Censor Video Games
We also were disappointed when the House Judiciary I - Civil Law - Committee approved a measure - House Bill 4023 - supported by Governor Rod Blagojevich that seeks to limit the sale and/or rental of "violent" video games to anyone 18 or younger. Retailers could be fined up to $5000 for violating the statute. Federal courts - including the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago - have rejected schemes like House Bill 4023 to block access to video games. This means that the state's taxpayers will bear the cost to defend in court - a law that ultimately will be found unconstitutional. House Bill 4023 is part of a long history of censorship - in which government officials believe it appropriate - to suggest the imposition of their views on all parents. In a free society, we leave the decision about what it is age-appropriate to parents, not politicians. Parents will make different decisions based on the characteristics of their children. Some parents will decide that their child is ready at 17-years-old to see and read materials that other parents may allow their children to access at 16-years-old. These are decisions best left to mothers and fathers, not government officials. This approach is at the core of our defense of the First Amendment.

ACTION NEEDED: House Bill 4023 now moves to full House for a vote. Please contact your state representative by calling the Capitol switchboard at (217) 782-2000 and ask to be connected to his/her office. Urge your state representative to oppose House Bill 4023when it is considered in the full House. You can learn more about this expensive, troubling proposal at http://www.aclu-il.org/legislative/alerts/hb4023.pdf. If you cannot remember who your state representative is, you can look up that information at http://www.elections.state.il.us/dls/pages/SelectOfficialSearch.asp.