Thank you so much for all of your activism, phone calls, office visits and spreading the word with your friends and family. Your participation in fighting this bill has truly made a difference in building support for life! Thank you for standing up for Life!

We have not won forever, we have won for now.  We must remain vigilant.

Hello all:

I write to you today with great news!  House Bill 2354 will not be called for a vote before tonight’s deadline.  The proponents of the bill (Planned Parenthood and ACLU) were not able to muster the number of votes they needed, so they will not call the bill for a vote.  We estimate they were  some 10 to 15 votes short of the 60 required.

This great accomplishment would not have happened without your engagement  in the issue.  Catholics across Illinois participated in email and phone trees, took up petition drives, met with their representatives, and many drove  to Springfield to lobby in the halls of the Capitol.  We must also note the leadership role assumed by our Bishops and their willingness to speak out and rally our people.  All of us came together and did a great thing.

Some people and/or groups are reporting that the bill is dead for the year. Perhaps.  However, we must remember that there are many ways to  revive legislation, and it will not harm us to remain vigilant.  We will  let you know quickly if anything stirs.

It will be very important that in the weeks to come we thank those legislators who stood up for what is right and begin to think about how to build  this network of opposition to House Bill 2354 into something bigger and more important — a network dedicated to the protection of human life and religious freedom.

But for today, enjoy this well-earned win and take time to thank God.  There are certainly more struggles ahead but not here, not today.

Zach Wichmann
Catholic Conference of Illinois
Associate Director for  Education

However, let’s not count our chickens before they’re hatched. Last night, abortion advocates moved the bill into position so that it could be passed in 24 hours by holding it on Calendar Order of Second Reading - Short Debate.

At the time of writing, there is much jockeying taking place in Springfield, including committed pro-lifers reaching out to legislators to defeat the bill. Things look good, but keep those calls coming! State Reps still need to know that this bill continues to be unacceptable with Amendment #2. If you haven’t called you State Rep yet to let him or her know that Amendment #2 does not satisfy your concerns, please do so today!

Hopefully by tomorrow around this time, we will know for certain that the opposition doesn’t have the votes and the leadership has chosen not to extend the deadline. At that point, we will truly know that FOCA is dead for the time being. Until that moment of certainty, we need to keep persevering!

To the Editor:

At a time when Macon County has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state at over 10%, the Chicago Democratic leadership in Springfield is pursuing one of the most radical and extreme abortion on demand bills in Illinois’ history. Rather than focusing on putting Illinoisans back to work, HB 2354 was introduced that would:

Repeal the Illinois Parental Notification Law;

• Expand public funding for abortions using taxpayer dollars
• Invalidate the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience, and;
• Mandate comprehensive sex education for all public school children

In the past several weeks, people from all over the seven counties in Illinois that I represent have called expressing their outrage at this extreme legislation. Please be assured that I will vote NO on HB 2354 when it is called for a vote.

At present Illinois ranks:

• 48th in economic performance
• 44th in economic outlook
• 47th in job growth
• 14th highest overall tax burden in the country
• 3rd highest in population loss

Shouldn’t the General Assembly focus on the pressing problems instead of waging a cultural war?

Bill Mitchell
State Representative
87th District
217-782-8163

Obviously, this horrific piece of legislation would not only end the lives of thousands of innocent children, it would hurt thousands of women and their partners who will never be given “choice” or information about the consequences of [abortion] (which are both physical and emotional).

This deprives parents of their God-given responsibility to protect and teach their own children. It deprives every physician, health-care worker, therapist and social worker of the right to work within their conscience and value system. It will continue the heinous rape of minors by adults, who will be able to continue to use children for sex without risk of being exposed or consequence.

Comprehensive Sex ed has been heavily funded in Illinois almost without exception since the early 1970’s. Only one program in the state’s history has shown to reduce teen pregnancy and STI infection.. “Project Reality” which was primarily privately funded. The massive amount of state and federal dollars spend on Comprehensive Sex education have been a dismal failure… it doesn’t work!

Wait, it does work in providing the state with more excuse to fund more abortions, sti testing, medication for the short and long term treatment of Chlamydia, Herpes, HPV screening and treatment, Syphilis treatment, HIV screening and ongoing drug therapy for those infected. Hmmmmm … I guess the “Sex business” is indeed “big business“! And those who have made their living as a result need to continue to exist and be given even more funding! The monster demands to be fed!

Thanks, Pam, for joining the opposition to HB2354!

Leading the protest were local pro-lifers Dan Wurtz and Julie Van Domelen of Holy Cross Church in Batavia. Dan and Julie had arranged a meeting with Rep. Hatcher and to deliver the hundreds of petition signatures against HB2354 from her district. They used that time to bring a peaceful, prayerful protest against HB2354 and Rep. Hatcher’s stand in support of it. Dan had this to say about the meeting:

Mrs. Hatcher was honest and to the point. While expressing reservations on HB-2354 she did say, “If you were to categorize me it would be Pro-Choice.” I sensed genuine conflict on the bill, but didn’t think that it alone would influence her vote.

She reiterated a few times a general theme that she had to be the representative for ALL the district and not all families and/or situations are ideal. Where conscience of health professionals was concerned, we were told that significant changes were being made to that part of the bill.

But, as we’ve seen, the problem is the whole bill, not the parts that are being amended. Dan continues:

We are trying to keep constant dialogue with Mrs. Hatcher to help her understand the moral implications of passing a bill even resembling HB-2354 is not the leadership this state or district needs.

Bottom line is this, We all have to keep pressure on our representatives by calling them and educating others about the bill and their representatives phone number. In these dark days we must show that we are servants of the most high, by protecting life.

Thanks so much for standing up for Life, Dan, and thanks for the report.

Our efforts are having a great impact. Realizing that the people of Illinois are rejecting Illinois FOCA, the anti-life proponents of HB 2354 are circulating have filed an amendment to the bill.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois has also issued new talking points for the new amendment.

Now, more than ever, we must redouble our efforts!

With that in mind, we need calls to State Reps today. Go to the contact page and find your State Rep’s contact information and call them today and tell them to Vote NO on HB2354.

But we also have to be aware that they’re also trying to amend this horrible bill to make HB2354 palatable to State Reps still sitting on the fence.

The proposed amendment put forth in the House yesterday does nothing but tinker with some of the conscience clause language. It affords no real protection to health care workers.

What’s more, the proposed amendment does nothing to address the
three other major problems with HB2354:

• HB2354 will FUND thousands of abortions with taxpayer money
• HB2354 will REQUIRE condom training sex-ed in our schools
• HB2354 will NULLIFY the Illinois Parental Notice Act

We need to keep up the pressure on our State Reps in Springfield to
stop this bill. They need to know that the proposed changes to the
bill are not enough — the whole thing needs to be trashed.

Urge your friends and family in Illinois to call their State Reps as well. Even if you’ve called before, your Rep needs to hear from you again.

The pro-choice forces have been fighting hard with editorials in newspapers, lobbying and letter-writing campaigns. We need to make sure our voices are heard as well.

We can defeat this bill if we act today.

Action Items:

• Call your State Rep TODAY and tell them to vote NO on HB2354.
• Call or e-mail your Illinois friends and family and tell them to call their State Reps today as well.
• Make sure your State Rep knows that the amendments to the bill make no impact on the main intolerable points of the bill.

Visit McHenry County Blog for more pictures and full details.

With that in mind, who’s running for school board in your area? Do you know the candidates? Do you know where they stand on comprehensive sex-ed and other issues that effect Illinois families?

What can you do to foster a pro-life school board?

If you do know, post what you know about the candidates in the comments section below so others can benefit. If you don’t know, find out and report back with the information.

• To find out who’s running, can check with your local board of elections or election commission.
• Call candidates in your area and ask them their position on sex-ed, their position on parental involvement in sex-ed curriculum and any other issues you think would be important to Illinois families.
• Post your findings in the comment section below.

Together, we can be informed voters and impact Illinois for the good of families.

A case in point: Today I heard report of a interesting phone call received by a pro-lifer named Emily. Not only is Emily pro-life—she works at a pregnancy center. So when she received a call—on her cell phone, no less—about HB2354, she was already armed with the truth about the bill.

I spoke to Emily this afternoon, and she told me about the call. The caller, who identified herself as being affiliated with a women’s right group of some kind, told Emily that HB2354 was a bill about “prenatal care, women’s reproductive health and adoption services.”

Wow. Nothing about taxpayers funding tens of thousands of abortion in the midst of a massive state fiscal crisis. Nothing about forcing healthcare workers to cooperate in abortion. Nothing about condom training for our kids. Nothing about keeping parents in the dark when their teenage daughters seek abortions.

Emily, of course, told the caller that she opposes this bill, because it’s not actually about “prenatal care, reproductive health and adoption.”

Emily knew the truth about this bill because this campaign has been all about revealing the truth. The Coalition To Defeat HB2354 is working to educate the public of Illinois about this bill. Our enemies are working to obscure the truth.

And that should tell our legislators everything they need to know about why they should vote against HB2354.