Please join us for a virtual conversation as we launch a joint report by Human Rights Watch and the ACLU of Illinois"The Only People It Really Affects Are The People It Hurts": The Human Rights Consequences of Parental Notice of Abortion in Illinois on Illinois’ Parental Notice of Abortion Act (PNA).

In effect since 2013, PNA requires a healthcare provider to notify an adult family member of any patient under 18 at least 48 hours in advance of providing an abortion. Young people who do not want to involve a qualifying adult family member—often because they fear forced continuation of a pregnancy, abuse, or alienation from their families—can go through “judicial bypass” to demonstrate to a judge that 1) they are sufficiently mature and well enough informed to make the decision without parental involvement, or that 2) parental involvement is not in their best interests.

Join the conversation on March 11th to hear more!

Featuring:

  • Hannah Baity (she/her) is a youth organizer with the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent health and a first-year student at the University of Illinois-Springfield. Born and raised outside of Chicago, Hannah has been involved in advocacy on young people’s sexual and reproductive rights since 2017. In 2019, Hannah testified before the Illinois General Assembly in support of a bill to repeal PNA.
  • Dr. Rebecca Commito (she/her) is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Chicago. She provides sexual and reproductive healthcare to young people under 18 and adults. In recent years, she has counseled dozens of young people pursuing judicial bypass in Illinois under PNA.
  • Emily Werth (she/her) is a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois where her work focuses on women’s and reproductive rights. Emily joined the ACLU of Illinois in the fall of 2014. She is a 2006 graduate of the University of Chicago and a 2011 graduate of Harvard Law School. She has represented dozens of young people seeking judicial bypass in Illinois under PNA.
  • Margaret Wurth (she/her) is a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch where she focuses on the right to health. She has done research and advocacy on a wide range of human rights issues, from the impacts of the Zika outbreak in Brazil, to access to abortion care in the Dominican Republic and Honduras. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
  • Moderated by Laura S. Washington (she/her), a Chicago Sun-Times contributing columnist and political analyst for ABC 7, Chicago’s ABC-owned station. In 2015 and 2019 she served as a Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. Washington brings more than two decades of experience as a multi-media journalist and non-profit professional specializing in African-American affairs, local and national politics, race, and social justice. From 2003 to 2009 she served as the Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor at DePaul University. She is the former editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter, served as deputy press secretary to Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Northwestern University. Her work has been honored with dozens of local and national awards, including two Emmy Awards, the Peter Lisagor award, the Studs Terkel Award for Community Journalism and the Racial Justice Award from the YWCA. Her work and commentary has been widely featured in the national media, including Time Magazine, the Associated Press, New York Times, NBC Nightly News, MNSBC, PBS News Hour and the BBC. Washington is a frequent lecturer and moderator for local and national audiences.

Read the Report

Find out more about efforts to repeal PNA

Event Date

Thursday, March 11, 2021 - 4:30pm

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Thursday, March 11, 2021 - 4:30pm

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Two bills threatening to weaken the nation’s strongest biometric information privacy law will get a hearing on Tuesday in the Illinois House Judiciary – Civil Committee. The proposals, House Bill 559 and House Bill 560, effectively gut the meaning and enforcement of the Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), adopted unanimously by both legislative chambers a little more than a decade ago. The effort to reverse the law comes after court decisions in recent years that have held large companies like Six Flags and Facebook accountable for collecting and using the biometric information of Illinois residents. 

“BIPA has worked to protect the biometric information – like face prints and fingerprints – of Illinois residents,” said Sapna Khatri, advocacy and policy counsel for the ACLU of Illinois. “This information is incredibly sensitive because it can never be changed. At a time when other cities and states are moving to ban dangerous biometric technology like facial recognition, this is not the time to reverse course on these important privacy guidelines we have in place in Illinois. Indeed, these guidelines are seen as a model for other states. The Committee should stop these measures in their tracks.”  

BIPA is straightforward. It simply requires a company to inform someone in writing when biometric data is being collected or stored. And BIPA requires written consent in order for the company to collect, store of use the data. Because the law allows an individual to bring a legal claim against any company that violates the provisions of BIPA, it has been used in recent years to win judgments for violations against Six Flags, Facebook and other companies.  

Together, the two House measures would undo all of these protections. The bills redefine what is biometric information so that some of our most intimate, private data is no longer covered. The measures also eliminate any protections for employees, allowing companies to collect and store their information without meaningful information or consent. And the bills end the ability to bring cases in court against violators, leaving the enforcement to government agencies that are not positioned to punish violations – including the massive ones we have seen in recent years.  

“This is dream legislation for companies that exist to collect and monetize our information,” added the ACLU’s Khatri. “It removes any meaningful requirement to comply with BIPA. The message is clear – if you cannot comply with the law, just use the legislature to remove the requirement.” 

“Our privacy in Illinois should not be treated in such a cavalier fashion.”

The two bills are expected to come up for consideration at a Committee Hearing that begins at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9. The hearing will be held virtually in Virtual Room 3 of the Illinois House.  

Date

Monday, March 8, 2021 - 7:15am

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Government Accountability and Personal Privacy

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