News & Commentary

Last week, the ACLU of Illinois asked a state court to block enforcement of Illinois' Parental Notice of Abortion Act. We presented extensive and compelling evidence that the newly-effective law puts Illinois teens at significant risk for serious and irreversible harm. Purportedly seeking to promote family communication, the law ignores some basic realities: first, most minors already involve their parents in their abortion decision; second, where they cannot, it is for good reason.

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With little fanfare - and nearly no media attention - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed legislation that extends the collection of data by police of every motorist they stop. The measure was first adopted a few years ago under the leadership of President Barack Obama when he served in the Illinois State Senate. When asked earlier this summer about the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the President described this effort in his home state (discussion starts around 2:00):

The ACLU of Illinois welcomes Kayla Higgins as an intern. She will be blogging about her work with the ACLU over the next few months:Hi, my name is Kayla and I am

Last week at a prime time television news conference, President Barack Obama again championed measures to combat racial profiling. Responding to a question from a Chicago Sun Times reporter, the President reminded the national audience of his work as a member of the Illinois General Assembly to mandate collection of traffic stop data in Illinois (discussion starts around 2:00 minutes).

I have bad news. After 26 years of hard fought litigation, we lost our epic battle to protect Illinois teens from the disastrous, and sometimes dangerous, consequences of compelled parental or judicial notice of the teen's pregnancy and decision to have an abortion!

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