Archive for the ‘Abortion Restrictions’ Category
Posted by Thomas More Society (March 12, 2010 at 5:02 pm)
For Immediate Release
Chicago, Illinois March 12—Reacting to the recent claim by the Attorney General that the Illinois Constitution contains a right to abortion, attorneys from the Thomas More Society will appear in Cook County court on Monday, March 15, again seeking to intervene in the latest American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) lawsuit, challenging the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995.
In Hope Clinic, et al., v. Brent Adams et al. (No. 09 CH 38661), Thomas More Society attorneys are representing Illinois State’s Attorneys Stu Umholtz (R-Tazewell), Ed Deters (D-Effingham) and Ray Cavanaugh (R-Henderson), and maintain that because there is no right to abortion in the Illinois Constitution, the ACLU’s latest challenge to parental notice is baseless. The Attorney General, representing various Illinois officials who are named as defendants, has moved to dismiss the case on other grounds.
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Posted by Thomas More Society (March 11, 2010 at 11:25 pm)
Outside of Planned Parenthood on Lasalle and Division in downtown Chicago, a newsstand has stood vacant on the corner for quite some time.
The newsstand, owned by the city of Chicago, created a bit of an annoyance for pro-lifers since it took up a good bit of sidewalk real estate where sidewalk counselors and prayer partners could otherwise stand.
But the folks at Aid for Women pregnancy resource center turned the annoyance into a blessing when they purchased an ad on the side of the newsstand offering women alternatives to abortion right outside the clinic’s door.
But recently and with no notice, the newsstand was taken down by the city along with the ad, despite the fact that Aid for Women had contracted the ad through the beginning of May.
Many observing the situation have smelled something fishy about the situation, especially because the Planned Parenthood facility is located in the ward of Alderman Vi Daley—the alderman who sponsored the infamous Chicago “bubble zone” ordinance at Planned Parenthood’s request.
With that in view, Thomas More Society attorneys have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any and all documents the city has pertaining to the ad, the newsstand and their removal.
Read all about the story from the Pro-Life Action League, the Chicago Tribune’s Dennis Byrne and TMS’s FOIA request below.
Related Links
Posted by Thomas More Society (February 24, 2010 at 4:28 pm)
An article by the Thomas More Society’s Paul Linton appeared in the latest edition of the Human Life Review, a publication of the Human Life Foundation.
The article, entitled A Fool’s Errand: State “Personhood” Proposals [PDF], is an important contribution to the national debate on this strategy for fighting the pro-life battle. The full article can be read here [PDF].
The Human Life Review is available for $25 per year, contact HLR at 353 Lexington Avenue, Suite 802, N.Y., N.Y. 10016; (212) 685-5210. See the Human Life Review website at HumanLifeReview.com or contact them via e-mail at humanlifereview@verizon.net.
Posted by Thomas More Society (February 19, 2010 at 11:27 am)
Providence, RI Mayoral candidate Chris Young’s trial on charges of disorderly conduct for questioning Rep. Patrick Kennedy on abortion in the healthcare overhaul has been postponed until March 10. TMS attorneys representing Mr. Young are seeking for the charges to be dropped entirely and alleging that Mr. Young’s first amendment rights were violated.
Video of the incident can be seen here and case documents can be read here.
As we wait for the trial to proceed, the media has taken notice of this significant case. Local and national news outlets have covered the story. Follow the links below to find out more.
Press Coverage of Chris Young Trial
Posted by Thomas More Society (February 18, 2010 at 1:51 pm)
A great interview on the topic of the Personhood movement appeared on Moody Radio’s Primetime America on Tuesday, February 16.
The piece featured the Thomas More Society’s Paul Linton, who questions the legal theory behind Personhood, Eric Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League, a client of the Thomas More Society, offering some perspective on where Personhood fits in the larger pro-life movement, and Keith Mason of Personhood USA explaining Personhood from the perspective of one of its biggest proponents.
Listen to the whole piece here.
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.
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Posted by Thomas More Society (November 4, 2009 at 10:54 am)
7th Circuit Court of Appeals Lifts Injunction on Illinois Parental Notice Act!
Culmination of Four Years of Work by Thomas More Society
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.
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Posted by Thomas More Society (October 29, 2009 at 4:30 pm)
Thomas more society intervenes to defend Illinois parental notice of abortion act.
Chicago, October 29—Today, the Thomas More Society filed a petition to intervene, on behalf of three Illinois state’s attorneys, in Cook County Circuit Court to defend the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently brought suit in Illinois state court to enjoin or block the Act, after the ACLU lost its bid in federal court earlier this year to stop the Act from going into effect. State’s Attorneys Stewart Umholtz of Tazewell County, Edward Deters of Effingham County, and Raymond Cavanaugh of Henderson County are seeking to intervene in order to have the case dismissed.
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Posted by Thomas More Society (August 31, 2009 at 4:49 pm)
TMS Attorneys Seek Extraordinary Relief in Illinois High Court to Force State Medical Board to Enforce the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995.
After our long struggle to secure an enforceable, fully “constitutional” Parental Notice Act in Illinois, we kept running into roadblock after roadblock as officials kept trying to delay and block the actual enforcement of the law. The latest obstacle occurred right after the U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the ACLU’s latest constitutional challenge to the law. The Illinois Medical Disciplinary Board recommended to the state’s Department of Professional Regulation that enforcement be delayed for a 90 day “grace period,” ostensibly to allow abortion providers to get into step with the law.
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Posted by Thomas More Society (August 31, 2009 at 10:43 am)
Illinois Supreme Court Urged to Order Enforcement, Without Delay, of Illinois Law Requiring Physicians to Notify Minor’s Parents before Performing an Abortion
CHICAGO, Aug. 31 —Today, the Thomas More Society, a public interest law firm based in Chicago, has filed in the Illinois Supreme Court an original action for “writ of mandamus,” asking the Justices to order the immediate enforcement, without further delay, of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 (”Parental Notice Act” or “the Act”), and directing the members of the Illinois State Medical Disciplinary Board, the Acting Secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation, and the Director of the Division of Professional Regulation to expunge and negate their recommendation and order, handed down earlier this month, suspending enforcement of the Parental Notice Act for ninety days. The Society alleges that these administrative officials acted without legal authority and in defiance of legally required procedures in unilaterally announcing that they would wait three months before enforcing this duly enacted Illinois law and that their illegal action could only be remedied – on a timely basis – by the Supreme Court’s direct and immediate intervention.
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