Parental Notice Hanging by a Thread in Illinois
Posted by Thomas More Society (November 4, 2009 at 4:00 pm)
Parental notice in effect . . . . for four hours.
Judge grants temporary restraining order at 4pm, law stopped again.
Update 2: Wednesday afternoon, Judge Daniel Riley of the Cook County Circuit Court granted the ACLU a temporary restraining order against the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995. Thomas More Society attorneys are reviewing their options in the wake of the decision and will be back in Court on November 19 to argue in favor of TMS’s continued involvement in the case, on behalf of Illinois State’s Attorneys Stu Umholtz, Ed Deters, and Ray Cavanaugh.
Update 1: In a surprise move this morning, the doctors of the Medical Board—some saying that they are not “babysitters” for the Illinois Courts—refused to extend their “grace period” against enforcement of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act. Legal Counsel for the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation had tried to convince the doctors to extend the “grace period” for another 180 days. The doctors unanimously refused that request.
Robert Fernandez, a non-doctor member of the Board and an attorney for Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, tried to save the “grace period” by proposing that the Board extend for just 90 days. (The Sonnenschein law firm serves as outside counsel for Planned Parenthood of Illinois, the state’s largest abortion provider.) The doctors of the Board rejected that proposal, as well.
Chicago, IL—Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit dissolved the federal injunction against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act. As a direct result of the court’s decision (Zbaraz v. Hartigan), Illinois parents will be entitled, for the first time since Roe v. Wade was decided, to notification before their minor daughters are taken for abortions. The decision is the culmination of four years work by the Thomas More Society, particularly TMS Special Counsel Paul Linton, who devised the legal strategy which ultimately led to the lifting of the injunction.