Attorney General Kwame Raoul (D-Illinois) has agreed to an order permanently prohibiting the state from enforcing the Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act (SB 1909), a law declaring pro-life speech to be a "deceptive business practice" that utilizes the so-called "consumer fraud" of sharing certain information about the risks of abortion.
As AFN reported just after the Illinois Senate approved the bill earlier this year, it sought to impose a $50,000 fine on pro-life pregnancy centers for "misleading practices."
Soon after Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed the bill, Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA).
"We got a preliminary injunction this last summer, and now, the state of Illinois has caved totally and agreed to a permanent injunction and agreeing to pay attorney fees and costs," says Thomas Glessner, J.D., NIFLA's founder and president. "The governor and attorney general need to be pretty embarrassed about this, but truth won out here."
When Gov. Pritzker signed the bill in June, he declared, "Women need access to comprehensive, fact-based healthcare when making critical decision about their own health—not manipulation or misinformation from politically motivated, non-medical actors. By empowering the attorney general's office to battle deceptive practices, we're ensuring Illinoisans can make their own decisions about their bodies using accurate and safe information," he added.
Attorney General Raoul applauded that.
"By signing this law at a time when reproductive health access faces continued attacks in other states, Governor Pritzker is helping to protect patients who seek care in Illinois from these extreme violations of trust and privacy," Raoul stated then.
Now, Raoul's office has not said why it settled rather than continue defending the law and appealing a final loss to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Thomas More Society celebrates the fact that "this unconstitutional law will never go into effect."
