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ROCKFORD, Illinois (LifeSiteNews) – In a victory for freedom of speech and alternatives to abortion, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Thursday against an Illinois law classifying pro-life pregnancy resource centers as “unfair methods” of assisting expectant mothers.
Passed in May and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on July 27, Illinois’s SB 1909 amends the state’s Consumer Fraud & Deceptive Business Practices Act to include any organization that primarily offers pregnancy-related services but “does not directly provide abortions or provide or prescribe emergency contraception, and has no affiliation with any organization or provider who provides abortions or provides or prescribes emergency contraception.”
The new law prohibits pro-life pregnancy centers from participating in “unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices, including the use or employment of any deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or misrepresentation, or the concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact” with the intention of offering life-affirming alternatives to abortion and discouraging abortion. Forbidden pro-life work includes “advertising, soliciting, or otherwise offering pregnancy-related services.”
Pro-lifers warned that the law would be interpreted as specifically targeting pro-life centers for offering alternatives to abortion.
Represented by the Thomas More Society, several pro-life organizations and pregnancy centers, including the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates and the Pro-Life Action League, filed a lawsuit and, on August 3, obtained an injunction against enforcing the new law, TMS announced Thursday.
“Free Speech won today in the Land of Lincoln—pro-life advocates across Illinois can breathe a sigh of relief they won’t be pursued for ‘misinformation’ by Attorney General Kwame Raoul,” said Thomas More Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation Peter Breen. “Across the nation, pregnancy help ministries are being discriminated against by laws that target their life-affirming work. The injunction granted today sends a strong, clear message to the country that the First Amendment protects pro-life speech.”
One of the most firmly Democrat-controlled states in the nation, Illinois has become a haven for abortion-on-demand in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year and allowing states to directly ban abortion. In June, Planned Parenthood of Illinois reported that it has seen a 54% rise in abortions since Roe’s reversal allowed abortion restrictions to take effect in its neighboring states.
1 million names against abortion Join us in urging the Supreme Court to stop the killing