* Democrats voting “No” included Reps. Bristow, Hoffman, Reitz, Scherer, Walsh and Yednock. Democratic Reps. Kelly Burke, Hurley, Jones and Kalish voted “Present”…

I’ll post react on our live coverage post. Click here. The full legislation is here.

* Also, just because a bill didn’t move at a specific time doesn’t mean the votes aren’t there to pass it, which is why I didn’t post this story earlier today…

It is unclear whether Democrats have enough support in the Illinois House to pass an abortion repeal-and-replace measure. The bill was not called for an expected vote Monday in that chamber. […]

The legislation Cassidy filed Sunday was amended to reflect concerns brought by lawmakers, insurance groups, health care groups and others.

“I do believe that we’ve responded and created that level of comfort for enough of my colleagues that we’re ready to move forward,” Cassidy said Sunday before the panel of legislators met to debate the act.

Demand for action on the bill came after states across the country, including Ohio, Alabama, Missouri and Georgia, passed laws restricting access to abortion. Some of those states did so in the hopes of challenging the 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across the country.

…Adding… Sun-Times…

The measure would repeal the state’s current abortion law, adopted in 1975. In its place would be language in which certain elements are removed, such as: spousal consent; criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions; waiting periods; and other restrictions on facilities where abortions are performed. The updated legislation, which passed a House committee on Sunday, also clarifies the definitions of viability and health. […]

The Reproductive Health Act also includes language that treats abortion as health care.

Many provisions of the state’s 1975 abortion law have been enjoined by the courts, including criminal penalties for doctors who offered abortion care. The new law also repeals the Partial Birth Abortion ban, which imposed restrictions on doctors performing abortions on women who were 20 weeks pregnant or later. The ACLU says about 90 percent of all abortions are performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy.

Partial-birth abortions remain banned by federal law, except to save the life of the mother. The new measure does not change factors around partial birth abortions, Cassidy said.

Cassidy told lawmakers claims that doctors can perform abortions at any stage of the pregnancy are “medically and factually incorrect.” It allows for doctors to make their own professional decision if a patient’s health is at risk, which is already in current state law.

       

57 Comments - Here we go again - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 1:59 pm: Rep Cassidy really drove this home. She deserves a lot of credit for this, including all the advocates. Interesting present vote from Kalish, considering the district. - PJ - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:04 pm: If they run the cannabis bill this week too, we may set a record for debate time. This was a marathon, and it was nothing compared to yesterday. I bet pot gets at least 2 hours. - Donnie Elgin - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:09 pm: Key to passing this bill - Gut and Replace. Symbolic slap in the face to GOP as well as the original SB00025 “Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Code” passed unanimously - Justin - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:18 pm: I am happy that SB25 passed the House. Sad that my Rep. Bristow voted NAY. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:19 pm: ===Key to passing this bill - Gut and Replace=== Did you just fall off the turnip truck? - anon2 - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:19 pm: This bill is the polar opposite of the notorious new Alabama law. - A guy - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:23 pm: Thanks to Rep Borne for her valiant advocacy of the other view. Heartbreaking. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:26 pm: ===Heartbreaking.=== Another man’s opinion is exactly what we need. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:27 pm: I am so thankful for the hard work of so many to make this happen. I am not happy about Bristow and Hoffman. Not happy at all. This bill was/is so necessary to shore up the legal tide barrier. Missouri 20 minutes away from me is about to lose their only Abortion Clinic, Planned Parenthood of St. Louis I really believe that States and individuals are choosing sides in a civil war against women. And yes I really see it that way A Civil War. I think this is going to divide our country like nothing else. That’s why I’m really really not happy with Bristow and Hoffman. I stand unequivocally with Women’s Absolute Adamantine Right of self determination and agency over her own body. - Peoples Republic of Oak Park - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:29 pm: Happy it passed but bittersweet considering the underscore of this is hallowing of reproductive rights that is emminant in the comming years. - A guy - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:32 pm: ==Another man’s opinion is exactly what we need.== Precisely why I limited my reaction to one word. I’ve largely avoided commenting on this, but would submit to you that there are many women in my life who would have a similar view. - Juvenal - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:35 pm: I’m so old I remember when there were atleast a dozen Pro-Choice Republicans in the Illinois House. The stunning thing about this roll call is not that a handful of Democrats opposed it, but the lack of support from the GOP. - Cubs in '16 - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:38 pm: ==Another man’s opinion is exactly what we need.== If you view this issue as an assault on women, you are probably right. If you see it as advocacy for the rights of the unborn, the statement makes no sense whatsoever. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:38 pm: ===there are many women in my life who would have a similar view.=== There’s always Alabama. - Just Saying - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:41 pm: Civil war against women my foot. This is war against babies. - Scamp640 - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:43 pm: @ A Guy: The most pro-life thing you could do is support universal prenatal care, universal childcare, comprehensive sex education in school, free birth control, and any other measure to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and really support the wanted pregnancies. Where these policies are put in place, abortions drop. Just a thought. - Scamp640 - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:48 pm: @ Just Saying. Did you know that the Alabama anti-choice legislation exempts fertilized embryos used for IVF. In other words, abortion is bad when the embryo is fertilized in a woman, but the fertilized egg can be destroyed when outside a woman. Why is that? I would say that is an attempt to control women’s bodies. - wordslinger - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:56 pm: Opponents can take heart that due to private and public efforts to increase access to sex education, pre-natal care and contraceptives, abortions are at an all-time low among all groups and the trend continues downward. I’m sure you’re all supportive of those efforts. - njt - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 2:59 pm: ===This is war against babies.=== And yet, when it comes to protecting and paying for those lives after birth nary a peep can be heard from some folks for the support of increased income for the services word mentions. - Anonymous - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:00 pm: I don’t think we should kill babies. I’m a republican. - Pot calling kettle - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:03 pm: ==This is war against babies. == #1 Zygotes, embryos, & fetuses are not babies. They are, up until a few weeks before birth, unable to survive outside the womb. #2 If there is a “war on babies” it is the lack of support for babies and mothers socially, professionally, and financially. - ArchPundit - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:14 pm: ====#1 Zygotes, embryos, & fetuses are not babies. They are, up until a few weeks before birth, unable to survive outside the womb. You left out Blastocyst Americans. - ArchPundit - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:20 pm: ====I don’t think we should kill babies. I’m a republican. Fortunately, this law does not apply to babies, but only to those blastocysts, zygotes, embryos and fetuses up to viability. Understanding biology would help clarify this. - Dave W - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:20 pm: ==#1 Zygotes, embryos, & fetuses are not babies. They are, up until a few weeks before birth, unable to survive outside the womb.== My niece was born at 24 weeks. She weighed 1 lb, 3 oz. Today, she is a beautiful, healthy, thriving 8 year old. She was born 16 weeks premature. I’d say 16 weeks is more than just “a few weeks”. - Dave W - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:22 pm: To the people upset with Hoffman and Bristow voting “no”: spare me. They represent very pro life Catholic districts. And it’s not like they spoke out against the bills. They took the cowardly way out by quietly voting no. The bill was going to easily pass anyway, but now they can brag to their constituents about how they “stood up for life.” - ArchPundit - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:29 pm: ===My niece was born at 24 weeks. And given how viability is defined in the law, a 24 week fetus would be considered viable. Less than 2 percent of abortions occur after 20 weeks and those are only available if there are significant health or life concerns for the mother. - Powdered Whig - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:30 pm: === I don’t think we should kill babies. I’m a republican. === I don’t think we should kill babies, but I don’t want to have to pay taxes to support those babies in the event their parents are incapable of doing so without government assistance. I’m a republican. There - fixed it for you. - Just saying - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:41 pm: Scamp640 - we are not talking about Alabama. we are talking about Illinois killing babies. I was born premature at 6 months, weighed 2 lbs 3 oz, and this was back in 1958, yet here I am. I actually had someone tell me that I wasn’t really a baby until 3 months after I was born. The menatlity of today’s thinking is just crazy. Satin must love all of this support for abortion. And why do people always say the Catholics are against abortion? So are the Methodist, Baptist, none denominational churches, basically those who believe what the bible says. Can you honestly say in your heart say that GOD is for all of this? These are SAD days ahead. And we get called all kinds of names because we don’t support killing babies. Funny that many animals and animal eggs have more rights that our babies. And how is this bill called the Reproductive Health Act? It has NOTHING to do with reproductivity but the opposite. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:49 pm: ===we are talking about Illinois killing babies.=== No we are not. We are talking about legal rights of women seeking to safely terminate a pregnancy, a decision that is none of your business. ===basically those who believe what the bible says.=== We are not about to adopt biblical law on this or any other subject. If that makes Satin (sic) happy, then it makes Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams happy too. If you’d like to live under biblical law, maybe Iran will take you in. Citing the bible, of all things, in a debate about laws is the most anti-American thing you can do. Safe, legal and rare. - Anon - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:51 pm: ==To the people upset with Hoffman and Bristow voting “no”: spare me. They represent very pro life Catholic districts.== So what’s the excuse for the other 8 who voted no or didn’t vote? At least some of these should draw a primary challenge. - Jocko - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:53 pm: ==My niece was born at 24 weeks.== And thanks to this bill, she will be able to determine what to do with her body when she comes of age. The alternative is “You can be anything you want…unless your egg gets fertilized. Then you’re a mother or a birth mother.” - A guy - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:54 pm: ==There’s always Alabama.== C’mon man. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 3:58 pm: Just Sayin, Speak for yourself, not others. Use “I” language You don’t speak for God. - lakeside - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:09 pm: A lot of love for all the legislators standing up for women today, and those in the comments doing the same. There will be a lot of relief thanks to these these regs, and women’s lives will be saved. Cassidy put the stakes out there and did a great job. Honeybear - a special shout out to you for 3:58. - Just Saying - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:16 pm: Honeybear - I am repeating what GOD says, thou shalt not kill. How hard is that to understand? - Hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:22 pm: @Justsaying - Leave the Methodists out of this. The United Methodist church is a pro-choice denomination. - Demoralized - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:37 pm: ==And we get called all kinds of names== Kind of like you calling people killers? - Powdered Whig - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:46 pm: === Honeybear - I am repeating what GOD says, thou shalt not kill. === So I am guessing that you similarly express your outrage at every shooting that results in a child’s death? - DMC - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:46 pm: Just saying - where is your God when every day thousands of children are dying of malnutrition and abuse? Oh I know. He works in mysterious ways. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:48 pm: Just Saying- Okay let’s dance a little. Are you okay with capital punishment, war, meat? Look, you are a scriptural literalist correct? Then you’re going to automatically have problems with modern law. Clue: we don’t stone people anymore. And……our constitution provides us equal protection under the law, bill of rights, etc etc. It’s difficult to do what you want to do follow the Bible in the modern world Do you eat pork? Shellfish? Get where I’m goin with this? It’s all in how you interpret. But here’s the thing. You can’t foist your interpretation of scripture or religion on to me or any other US citizen. It’s called Freedom of Religion Thus I can be Unitarian Universalist You can be a fundie whatever knock yourself out. It’s when you start saying and forcing me or in the above case, women, that your gonna get a fight from me. and from the constitution and the courts. How hard is that to understand? - The Mythical Middle - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 4:55 pm: Just to clarify for everyone a baby is any child that has been born. A fetus is any child that is still inside the mother. What is terrible about this abortion debate is the complete lack of sympathy for the many, many women who have to abort a child they DO want because of medical complications. How dare you tell a woman she killed her child when it was already brain dead or never formed a skull or had no lungs or a thousand other terrible things that happen in the womb. Only 6 out of 20 fertilized eggs even make it to viability for a thousand different reasons and abortion is not one of them. - ajjacksson - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:07 pm: DMC…..don’t ask where God is unless you really want to know. “Heartbreaking” is the correct word…… - ajjacksson - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:09 pm: Honeybear…..whether it’s forced on you or not….is it the right thing to do? And yes, the deaths of children, victims of shooting or otherwise, is truly heartbreaking…. - Just saying - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:31 pm: Honeybear - It is true that we have free will to do as we wish and you are going to be free to have abortions any way you wish, or any other thing you wish to do, that is your freedom of religion. But that still does not make it right and I still have the right to say it isn’t right. To Hisgirlfriday - yep I see now that Methodist accept abortion, my bad on that one. Anyway, I have stated my opinion and you have stated yours - we disagree. I will leave it at that. Others have said I am calling people names. I have not. - Demoralized - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:37 pm: ==Others have said I am calling people names. I have not.== You have used the term “killing babies”, ergo you believe those that support abortion rights are killers. So, yes, you are calling others names - Froganon - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:49 pm: Pro-life doctrine/ideas/ideology have utterly failed to persuade most of us so the anti-abortion/anti-contraception/anti-women movement works to hijack the law to force the rest of us to obey their religiosity. Using the power of the government to shove anti-abortion ideology down the throats of those of us who reject it is vile. An honest pro-life movement would support laws that actually reduce abortions and save lives - full access to all types of birth control/voluntary sterilization, full funding of maternal health care, full funding of schools and health care. Support raising the minimum wage and all wages so everyone can afford shelter, food, medical care and a save for emergencies and retirement. The silence on issues that support families and women to have children and raise them well is deafening. It reeks of the hypocrisy that permeates the pro-life movement. - Honeybear - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:51 pm: Yes ajjacksson, sometimes having an abortion is the right thing to do. Yes, unequivocally yes if that’s what the woman chooses. - In the Waiting Room - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:52 pm: If Republicans stop giving Speaker Madigan votes to make stuff Madigan wants happen, eg revenue, then there’s not much incentive for Madigan to look for middle ground on stuff like abortion & gun control. The “my way or the highway” culture of conservatism cuts both ways. - Anon - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 5:55 pm: Froganon - those are just the talking points of the Dems. Pro-lifers don’t care about life outside the womb, blah blah blah. And no one who supports this law cares one bit about reducing abortions. If they did, then they would have to be acknowledging that abortion is wrong, and they can’t do that and also say that it’s fine to have it any time for any reason. - Froganon - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 6:02 pm: Anon No,abortion is not wrong. You believe that with all of your heart but your belief doesn’t make it true. Abortion is a direct result of the failure to have access to contraception and enough money to raise a child. Abortion is also the result of fetuses that can’t survive. If you oppose abortion then pay the taxes and support the social structure that supports families and women. - John B. - Tuesday, May 28, 19 @ 11:25 pm: Just thankful there are states out there fighting the good fight. The liberal cesspool that is Illinois will continue to decline fiscally and morally. So happy i joined exodus out of that wasteland. I now live in a state where the majority of voting women are opposed to abortion. So sad that states like Illinois and NY now actually celebrate the practice. - Jocko - Wednesday, May 29, 19 @ 7:34 am: ==states like Illinois and NY now actually celebrate the practice.== Actually, we celebrate the fact that settled law (and science) take precedent over religion. Should manslaughter charges be brought up against a woman who miscarries…just to make sure? - Honeybear - Wednesday, May 29, 19 @ 8:44 am: John B, good for you. I’m happy that you rest so comfortably in your righteousness. Enjoy - Honeybear - Wednesday, May 29, 19 @ 8:54 am: John B. does perfectly represent the what looks to be a partition impulse and phenomenon. It’s why I feel more and more that Civil War is beginning. I found myself looking for the diaries of Mary Chestnut. - Honeybear - Wednesday, May 29, 19 @ 9:00 am: -And no one who supports this law cares one bit about reducing abortions.- Not at all. I have put in several hundred hours as a certified teacher of Our Whole Lives, a comprehensive whole life human relationship and sexuality curriculum at my church. So no I’ve put a lot into it. Each run is 12 weeks 3 hours each Sunday after church. What have you done to reduce unwanted pregnancy and abortion? - Enviro - Wednesday, May 29, 19 @ 10:32 am: == A Guy: The most pro-life thing you could do is support universal prenatal care, universal childcare, comprehensive sex education in school, free birth control, and any other measure to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and really support the wanted pregnancies. == Do you support the above programs plus paid maternity and /or paternity leave? I do. These are also pro-life issues - Julie - Thursday, May 30, 19 @ 1:17 pm: When there is an abortion, a baby dies. At fertilization, it becomes a baby–it will never be anything else than a human. Blastocyst, zygote, embryo and fetus are just names for stages of development like newborn, toddler, teenager. I, too, am greatly saddened by this assault on human life. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.