HOUSE IS IN SESSION!
And Democrats are Looking to Expand Their Power
Here’s What May Show Up for Debate and Votes
1. Governor Pritzker wants to gut the Healthcare Rights of Conscience Act. For nearly 25 years, Illinois has protected the rights of people’s conscience of not participating in any medical procedure they are opposed to. In fact, Illinois has one of the strongest Rights of Conscience Acts for Healthcare in the nation.
Governor Pritzker knows the law limits government mandates and protects people that are properly using the law to refuse the COVID 19 vaccine. So, legislation was filed this week to prevent people from using the law as it pertains to COVID.
PLEASE follow this link to sign a witness slip opposing House Floor Amendment 2 to SB1169 and register your opposition to a change in the law and the continuing tyranny of Gov. Pritzker.
2. Repeal of Parental Notice of Abortion. There will be a Pro-Life Rally Tuesday at the Capitol. No specific legislation that directly repeals this law, but there is a backdoor way of negating parental rights through confidentiality in the schools. Here is a more complete explanation:
Backdoor Way to Escape Parental Notice of Abortion
HB3173 is a trailer bill to HB3223 which passed and was signed into law earlier this year. This follow-up bill may be a backdoor way to escape parental notice of abortion using the school “confidentiality” laws that are now in place.
To be clear, my position is that anything that any school personnel knows about a child, a parent also has a right to know. There should be nothing kept from a parent, and if abuse is occurring, then other authorities need to be called into the conversation.
Back to HB3173. According to an independent analysis, the current new law (HB 3223) allows, among other things, a pregnant minor girl in public school to have various “valid causes” for being absent, and therefore not truant. This valid cause includes a “medical appointment” (which could include an abortion). Normally, if a student is absent (or truant) without cause, the parents are called to find out why. This section allows a girl to be absent and not be called truant and parents not called.
HB 3173 as amended, adds confidentiality requirements to a “qualified employee” to keep information confidential from a parent if that employee decides it is not safe for the child to have her parent(s) told. We understand that an unsafe situation can be sexual violence or sexual abuse by the parent, but the employee (counselor, etc.) makes the call on what is safe in all situations. Thus, a pregnant girl could say “My parents will “kill me” or “will throw me out of the house” and an employee could say that statement makes telling the parent “unsafe.” Additionally, in floor debate, it was brought out by Sen. Rose that “If disclosing such risk does not require disclosing confidential information about a student’s status, then the student’s status must NOT be notified which would negate telling the parents. Also, the confidentiality section is messy, there is no statutory part of this bill that tells a “qualified employee” (counselor, etc) what is unsafe, so it would be up to the employee to decide if a parent should be notified.”
The Senate Republican Women’s Press Conference on this topic is HERE
Sign the petition support Parental Rights at this link.
3. CONGRESSIONAL MAPS – A complete gerrymander as expected. The second version of how to split the state into 17 districts and give the Democrats a huge advantage came out last Friday. We are expected to vote on those maps this week. More than likely, this second version will be the final version or very close to it. Here are a couple of points about the maps.
- The Maps set up a 14-3 advantage for the Democrats. Possibly 15-2.
- The Democrats set up two Hispanic favorable districts. The new 3rd Congressional District stretches from the Western Suburbs of Wheaton and Bartlett to Logan Square in Chicago to make this happen
- Seven of districts have a piece of Chicago in them
- Nine of the districts reach into a portion of Cook County to secure Democrat majorities
View an interactive map of the latest version at this Link.
Here is a screenshot of the House Committees scheduled for today. The link to this page is here.
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