Illinois Citizens for Ethics-Political Action Committee (ICE-PAC) Executive Director David Avignone believes the authors of Senate Bill 25 wrote the state's controversial new abortion legislation with intentional opaqueness.
“It is clear that the authors of SB25, including but not limited to State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago), the ACLU, and various abortion doctors, intentionally wrote the bill without providing clear definitions on ‘health’ and ‘viability,’” Avignone said in a statement released after the Illinois Senate Public Health Committee heard testimony on the bill May 30. His use of the term “but not limited to” references language in the bill used to define the characteristics of a patient that doctors would have to consider before performing a third-trimester abortion.
"The bill's authors defined 'health of the patient' as 'all factors that are relevant to the patient's health and well-being, including, but not limited to, physical, emotional, psychological and familial health and age,'" Avignone said in the statement. "When an author tries to define a word or phrase in law by adding 'not limited to,' it's meant to leave the door wide open to relativity. Even by removing 'but not limited to,' an abortion doctor can drive a truck through this definition. Make no mistake, the authors of this bill, and those who vote for it, know fully well a woman cannot be legally infringed upon when walking into an abortion clinic to end the life of the boy or girl in her womb, up to the moment of birth.”
ICE-PAC Executive Director David Avignone
The bill, which allows a pregnant woman “the fundamental right” to abort a child since the “fertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have independent rights,” was also rebuked by ICE-PAC Director Mary-Louise Hengesbaugh, who said most Illinoisans oppose the extremity of the proposed law. Senate Bill 25 passed the Senate on May 31 and now awaits the signature of Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
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