Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked a federal court to enforce a law that requires abortion practitioners to notify parents that their teenage daughter is considering an abortion.
The state Supreme Court approved the rules necessary to enforcement the law the legislature approved in 1995 but it must overturn a legal order against it.
Madigan files papers on Friday with the U.S. District Court in Chicago to let the law “take effect as soon as the Illinois courts are administratively prepared to handle judicial bypass petitions.”
“As the chief legal officer of the State of Illinois, it is my duty to uphold the Constitution and to defend the laws of this state if they are constitutional,” Madigan said, according to an AP report.
“At this point, forty-four states have parental involvement laws, and courts have upheld many parental notice laws that are similar to the Act.” However, abortion advocates are challenging Madigan.
The pro-abortion American Civil Liberties Union promised a legal challenge that could delay the pro-life law even further. Lorie Chaiten, director of the Reproductive Rights Project for the ACLU’s Illinois chapter, told AP it doesn’t like the rules the state Supreme Court issued. They claim the rules make it too difficult for a teenager in an abusive situation to get permission for an abortion.
Teenagers can get a court-issued waiver of the parental notification requirement in abuse cases but the state’s high court didn’t issue rules on that saying it’s a matter for lower courts to decide.
[22Jan07, LifeNews.com, Springfield, IL]