The State Journal-Register ran an editorial endorsing Senate Bill 1564 which aims to amend Illinois' Health Care Right of Conscience Act. The Act, which reflects current Illinois law, harms patients by allowing doctors, hospitals and other health care providers to refuse to give a patient care and even information that conflicts with the provider’s religious beliefs. The ACLU of Illinois continues to advocate for the bill's passage. The bill is currently awaiting a vote in the Illinois House.

Most states have similar laws, but according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, ours is the broadest in the country, and it has caused problems for patients — including a woman who experienced a miscarriage but wasn't informed of all options for medical care, and another pregnant woman whose doctor failed to inform her she'd sold her practice to a faith-based institution and was barred from performing the tubal ligation she’d previously agreed to do once the woman delivered the baby.

Other states require that providers have protocols in place for offering patients information about standards of care. Illinois' law currently doesn't prohibit providers from offering that information, but it doesn't require them to either.

Read the entire editorial.

Learn more about Senate Bill 1564 and the initiative to Put Patients First.

ACLU acts to protect children, those with disabilities during the budget impasse

As Illinois entered the new fiscal year without an approved budget, our State’s most vulnerable residents faced cataclysmic cuts in state services.

Here at the ACLU, we were especially concerned that our clients in four federal court lawsuits – children under the care of DCFS and people with disabilities – would be harmed by the lack of an approved spending plan. Faced with the risk of harm to clients, ACLU lawyers went back to court and won orders directing the State of Illinois to continue funding services for these at risk populations.

The orders require the State to continue to provide services and programs for children in the care of DCFS – and the foster families who provide the day-to-day care of these children; and to continue support for our clients with disabilities who currently are transitioning from large, impersonal institutions to apartments and homes of their own.

ACLU lawyers are able to protect our clients only because of your support. Thank you!

Learn more:

• Ligas v. Norwood - challenges the institutionalization and segregation of people with developmental disabilities in large intermediate care facilities.
• Colbert v. Rauner - alleges the State of Illinois violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by housing people with disabilities in institutions who could otherwise live independently.
• Williams v. Rauner - defends people with psychiatric disabilities who are housed in Institutions for Mental Diseases.
• B.H. v. Sheldon - long-standing consent decree to protect children under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and to monitor the care and services they receive.

In the Media:

• Washington Times: ACLU goes to federal court to enforce state payments
• Washington Times: Federal judge orders Illinois state payments without budget
• SF Gate: ACLU seeks federal enforcement of Illinois child services
• Crain's Chicago Business: How can state workers get paid when there's no state budget?
• Chicago Sun-Times: Federal judge enforces decree, says DCFS workers must be paid
• State Journal-Register: Federal judge orders state to keep funding DCFS even without budget
• Alton Daily News: Good News for DCFS
• Northern Public Radio: Court Rulings Put New Twists On Budget Battle
• Celeb Cafe: Federal judge enforces decree, says DCFS workers must be paid
• Bell Jar News: Rauner, Unions Plan Appeal of Worker Pay Ruling

Support the ACLU's disability rights and children's rights work.

Make a tax-deductible gift to the Roger Baldwin Foundation of the ACLU of Illinois.