HB 40 clears Senate
Wednesday, May 10, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From Planned Parenthood…
Today, the Illinois Senate passed HB40 (33-22), ensuring access to safe and legal abortion in Illinois. The legislation repeals dangerous “trigger” language which states that Illinois would revert back to law criminalizing abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade were overturned. With President Donald Trump’s promise to appoint anti-women’s health justices to the Supreme Court, Illinois cannot risk turning back the clock on reproductive rights.
In addition, HB40 removes discriminatory restrictions on Medicaid and state employee health insurance programs by allowing coverage for all pregnancy-related care, including abortion. This legislation respects that every woman should be able to make her own decisions about pregnancy even if she has insurance through state government.
“Every woman – no matter where she lives, how much money she makes, or how she gets her health care coverage – should have access to affordable and comprehensive health care so she can make personal health decisions based on what is best for her and her family,” said Jennifer Welch, President & CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
HB40 passed the Illinois House in April, and now will be sent to Governor Bruce Rauner for his consideration.
“Governor Rauner should carefully consider what the best policy is for all Illinois women and sign HB 40 into law,” urged Welch. “When it comes to the most important decisions in life, like whether to become a parent, it is vital that a woman is able to consider all the options available to her. It is not the government’s place to interfere with her decision by withholding access to abortion.”
Discuss.
…Adding… Tribune…
On the other side, Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said lawmakers are “scraping and clawing” a budget together. He said saying Illinois can’t afford to spend money it doesn’t have on providing abortions. Righter also contended removing language from Illinois law that says life begins at conception would create other problems, such as trying to prosecute someone who attacks a mother and in kills a unborn child in the process.
State Sen. Jil Tracy, R-Quincy, said it was “ironic” legislators were considering the bill on a day when they were also honoring children who grew up in the state’s foster care system. Many were on hand to shadow lawmakers for the day.
Tracy said she has long opposed abortion, saying she previously had worked as an attorney to place children with families, including those who were the result of incest. She said those children often went on to become productive citizens of society who brought great joy to the families they ended up with, later noting that one of her own daughters is adopted.
“I cannot imagine a world without her,” Tracy said. “So yes, I am a strong advocate for life.”‘
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:18 pm:
“Bruce has no social agenda.” - Diana Rauner, possibly misleading the state of Illinois(?)
That veto, if Rauner uses it, Cosgrove and Personsl PAC will let suburban women know…
You can’t trust Diana Rauner, and you really can’t trust the word of Gov. Rauner.
- Anonin-aint-easy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:19 pm:
As a pro-choice supporter I’m happy this passed but I can understand why pro-lifers are so strongly opposed.
Enjoy this volleyball spiked towards you Rauner, let’s see how you handle it.
- AC - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:21 pm:
Which Rauner alter ego will prevail, the one that was for it, or the one that now seems to be against it? I wonder if he’ll duck tape the bill to his desk to let it automatically become law in 60 days?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:22 pm:
“So, how about Diana and me give y’all $50,000, and you forget about that silly ole veto I might use” - Fake Bruce Rauner
- Incoming! - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
Terry Cosgrove (Personal Pac) press release in 5…4…3…2…1…
- Ron - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:26 pm:
Great!
- East Central Illinois - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:29 pm:
Totally against this. Taking a life. Today is another in a very long, long, long list of bad events taking place within Springfield.
- Mama - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:30 pm:
Rauner will never sign this bill, but he should sign it to keep women and children safe.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:32 pm:
Arguing over a bill that has zero chance of being triggered.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
==and children safe.==
*Not including the ones were are killed
- Liberty - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:46 pm:
From Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; …
- And...... - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 3:57 pm:
Manar no longer in touch with his district. He previously campaigned on being pro-life.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:10 pm:
Tracy said. “So yes, I am a strong advocate for life.”
Leveraged life (re Rauner’s Reformation) or only in regards to abortion? How many reds and yellows have been pressed to block appropriations to social service organizations that support all life? How many people have gotten progressively sicker, lost their homes, lost their ability to determine how they should live, lost their loved ones because of the “leverage” needed to pass non-ROI reforms??? You cannot pick and choose at what stage a person is considered a valued member of society if you vote against social services because you believe that “leverage” will gain your party political strength. That is the height of hypocrisy.
- Arsenal - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:14 pm:
==Manar no longer in touch with his district.==
That district stuck with him through marriage equality, sex education, and medical marijuana, so let’s wait and see.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:21 pm:
===he should sign it to keep women and children safe.===
Say what? Do you even understand the irony of that statement?
- cdog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:21 pm:
For what its worth, I was born in 1962 and adopted through Lutheran in Iowa. Of course this was way before Roe v Wade and so abortion was not much of an option. Thank goodness, right?
Good for Sen. Tracy to share her story.
From a moral pillar that will obviously not be shared by some, if young women and men exercised a little self-control and forethought then abortions are not necessary. This self-control/forethought ideal also applies to an aphorism, “be careful who you make a baby with” because there are some children being born into horrendous situations as we saw last week with the death of a toddler. What are these people thinking except instant gratification? /rant over.
- Amalia - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:22 pm:
Sen Tracy, that incest reference is why women in Illinois want to be sure that if Trump and his clown posse take our rights away that we can have the choice in Illinois to make our own reproductive choices. there may be actual consequences, both mental and physical with incest. come on.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:22 pm:
Anon221, Jefferson owned people.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
Anonymous@4:22 pm- I think you meant to reply to another poster. I posted nothing in regards to Jefferson.
- Mama - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
- Cubs in ‘16 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:21 pm: =
Yes I totally understand it.
A child being born does not mean the child will have a good or safe life. If you ever worked with abused/neglected children you would understand what I’m saying.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:36 pm:
Oops, my apology. My comment was meant to be directed at Liberty and Thomas Jefferson was a man that owned black people.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:43 pm:
===If you ever worked with abused/neglected children you would understand what I’m saying.===
I have and do work with those children. I just can’t justify killing an unborn child under the premise that they might be brought up in a dysfunctional home if allowed to live. At least they have a chance to be adopted or the parent(s) may turn their lives around, or any number of things could alter the course. With abortion the outcome is 100% predictable.
- Grand Avenue - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:43 pm:
If Rauner’s gonna veto does it make more sense to do it now or 60 days from now?
- Ron - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:47 pm:
Cubs, you should have to pay for all these unwanted pregnancies then. I don’t want to.
- Ron - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:51 pm:
Forcing unwanted pregnancies to be brought to term is a travesty to women.
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:51 pm:
===Cubs, you should have to pay for all these unwanted pregnancies then. I don’t want to.===
I know Ron. You have a heart the size of Texas. /s
If this bill passes your tax dollars will pay for those unwanted pregnancies one way or another.
- Ron - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:53 pm:
Cubs you should be forced to raise them too.
- Ron - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:54 pm:
It’s authoritarian to force a woman to give birth.
- Crispy Critter=== - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:56 pm:
== Illionois can’t risk turning back the clock on reproductive rights. ==
How does abortion have anything to do with reproducing?
- Cubs in '16 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:58 pm:
What’s authoritarian is forcing someone to raise someone else’s child.
- Arsenal - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:59 pm:
==If Rauner’s gonna veto does it make more sense to do it now or 60 days from now?==
Now. Get the story behind him.
- cdog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 4:59 pm:
Ron says, “Forcing unwanted pregnancies to be brought to term is a travesty to women.”
Nobody forced most of these women to become pregnant. Their lack of respect of many things caused their unwanted pregnancy.
It’s pretty simple to not get pregnant. Sheesh. Nobody is forcing anyone, sans rape/incest.
- Anon221 - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:02 pm:
Cubs in ‘16- “I just can’t justify killing an unborn child under the premise that they might be brought up in a dysfunctional home if allowed to live.”
I really doubt that a decision to choose an abortion by a woman is really based on that premise. Abortion is a choice, not a coercion. If the ability to make that choice is taken away, then a woman would face coercion. And, if you are going to force a woman to always have to follow through with birth, then are we as a society prepared to help her achieve a healthy birth along the way. Are we willing to make sure she has food, lodging, heat, water, safety to bring the child to term? And if the child is born with health issues or a disability, are we always going to be there for that new person throughout their entire life? If we as a society want to prevent as many abortions as possible, then we as a society need to be a humane society, not a society that seems to consistently want to believe everyone should be strong enough to take care of themselves all the time. And if they can’t, then they are weak and a drain on society. Which message will help most in the abortion issue?
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:06 pm:
Cubs, you’re the person advocating forced birthing.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:07 pm:
Cubs should have 0 input into what I do with my body or what my wife does with hers.
- cdog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:30 pm:
If Roe v Wade had never been litigated, and abortion was illegal and not common, what effect would that have had in society?
I propose there would be more personal responsibility and less STDs, among other things. Society would benefit from many of these.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:30 pm:
Whether it be life before birth, or life before capitol punishment, life is an inalienable gift from God, not of humankind, and should be protected by law.
Its shocking how the same country that allowed our laws to declare a non-white life as not a human life, could still be so ignorant and willfully blind not to recognize human life before birth as not a human being today.
Its as though there has been absolutely no medical progress made over the past half century regarding pre-natal human life.
Shocking how we let law so callously strip us of our human rights simply out of economic or convenience reasons.
Human life, in all it’s forms, genders, races, ethnic heritage and genetic differences is an inalienable precious gift no law should kill.
- ste_with_a_v_en - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:33 pm:
I wonder if Rauner would agree to sign it if maybe got some of what he wanted? Or if we had a budget in place?
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:36 pm:
===I wonder if Rauner would agree to sign it if maybe got some of what he wanted? Or if we had a budget in place?===
So Rauner is trading his “no social agenda” silliness for destroying labor?
That IS a Rauner thing, but the politics of doing that, that might be worse than the veto could be
- Jocko - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 5:49 pm:
Anon221@ 4:10 said it better than me.
I’m all about you having your kid…up to the minute after he’s born. Then you’re on your own!
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 6:01 pm:
Vanilla Man, your belief in fairy tales whether it be Odin, Jesus, Allah etc should have no impact on my life.
Cdog, lol, STDs have been around as long as mankind.
It’s repulsive that people think a blob of cells has the same rights as a woman.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 6:04 pm:
How about public workers be personally responsible for their own retirement?
- cdog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 6:18 pm:
There is an argument that if that blob of cells is not “a life,” an abortion is not necessary.
I guess I need to prepare myself for the next ethical arguments about what people are entitled to do with these blobs of cells prior to being declared “a life.” Where is the ethical line going to be drawn?
- CrispyCritter - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 7:07 pm:
I once worked with a man who claimed that until that blob was in the womb for 9 months, it was not a baby. So I asked him about my case; I was premature at 6 months. He told me that I was not actually a baby until 3 months later. So what about 5 months or 4 months? Where is the line? And can someone explain how an abortion is a reproductive right when abortion has NOTHING to do with the reproductive process?
- CrispyCritter - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 7:12 pm:
Anonymous == How about public workers be personally responsible for their own retirement? ==
They have been, they paid into a retirement plan for years upon years upon years without missing a payment.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 7:28 pm:
We can see to-the-day, how old a human embryo is. My twins were conceived three days apart. What we know now about pre-natal human life is exponentially more than it ever was back in the medieval dark ages of Roe. Our laws should recognize the scientific advances made kver the past half century. It is barbaric and flatly unscientific to deny the past 50 years of medical science regarding pre-natal human life.
Anyone uninformed by what the term, “unalienable right”, or the legal definition of “gift from God”, means without mocking either or injecting some kind of hate-filled twisted religious rant, is not educated enough for this discussion.
If you are anti-capital punishment, you cannot be anti-pre natal life. It makes no sense. Human life deserves our complete respect at any stage of being.
- Mad Brown - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 8:20 pm:
Over and again,
Healthcare choices WHATEVER they may be, are between doctor and patient.
Do not project YOUR ‘values’ or your theology, on the biology of another, period.
- Square Pegs - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 8:22 pm:
No matter what your personal feelings are about “life” or “when life begins” there are women of all ages who become pregnant. Not all of these women (or the father of the baby) want to have their baby. No law is going to stop these women from terminating their pregnancy. No matter how hard people try, this will always be a reality. They will go to extreme measures. They will look up home remedies, they will find a friend of a friend, they will behave recklessly. You can’t legislate mindset. Keep it safe. People (not all) are going to find a way to do it anyway.
- @misterjayem - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 8:38 pm:
This discussion of women’s rights needs more male voices.
– MrJM
- cdog - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 8:47 pm:
thought experiment.
I need a liver. I hire a surrogate and harvest the “blob of cells” a few days before expected delivery. This is between me and my doctor; society has no standing. My new liver works great.
This goes completely against my values but seems to follow the same rules being set.
(good job Vman:)
- Stand Tall - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 9:25 pm:
Square Pegs - The procedure is never safe for the innocent unborn child.
Medicaid is healthcare program, abortion has nothing to do with healthcare as healthcare is not about intentionally ending a life. Abortion is a totally unnecessary procedure for a pregnancy, it is only a matter used in most cases for convenience.
- justacitizen - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 10:29 pm:
I support Rauner’s turnaround agenda items intended to change the fraud that perpetuates year after year in IL. However, if the governor somehow agreed to sign HB40, I will no longer support him
- siriusly - Wednesday, May 10, 17 @ 11:58 pm:
More comments about the politics please. This is not the abortion debate blog ….
Politically he has no choice but to veto the bill I think. I’m personally for the bill but I don’t see how he can sign it and ask his GOP base to stay with him next year. If he signs it, he may keep some moderate voters with him. But he will lose a solid 15% of conservatives who have a more consistent voter participation record. I’d like him to sign it, but I know why he can’t. Cue Cosgrove 3…2…1…
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 7:08 am:
Donald Trump and Neil Gorsuch shouldn’t be the ones to decide whether women in Illinois have safe access to abortion.
If anti-choice advocates believe abortion should be banned in Illinois, let’s not rely on a trigger law from four decades ago.
Introduce your bill to repeal HB 40 Jil Tracy, and let’s have a vote.
- Colby jack - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 8:05 am:
Yellow dog, maybe the dems should put forward a clean bill that deals with the trigger and stop trying to force taxpayer funded abortion down everyone’s throat. Illinois maybe a blue state, but it’s not California.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 8:44 am:
More of the same BS from the anti abortion crowd. You fools should be forced to raise the unwanted pregnancies.