(LifeSiteNews) — Illinois parents and guardians could face criminal child abuse charges if they don’t help their children or others under their care get abortions.
The proposed legislation would also target parents who decline to help their minors undergo surgical or chemical mutilation in order to present themselves as the opposite sex.
Democratic Rep. Anne Stava-Murray introduced the bill last week. HB4876 would amend the “Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act” to declare anyone an “abused child” if they are denied “primary care services, abortion services, or gender-affirming services.”
It would also shield abortionists, surgeons, and other medical professionals from “civil or criminal liability” if they kill preborn babies or remove healthy organs from kids without their parent’s consent. Child abuse charges carry prison time as well as fines.
It is part of a broader campaign by Illinois Democrats to wipe out all protections for preborn babies, minor children seeking abortions, and women in general. The state has already legalized abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. The state also no longer requires parental notification. In addition, Illinois directly funds abortions using taxpayer dollars following a law signed by liberal Republican Governor Bruce Rauner in 2017.
However, Democrats and pro-abortion activists in the state have failed to force pro-life pregnancy resource centers to promote and refer for abortions. Following a federal lawsuit, Governor J.B. Pritzker and Attorney General Kwame Raoul both agreed not to enforce Senate Bill 1909, which targeted pregnancy centers for allegedly having “deceptive business practices.”
The state itself agreed not to enforce the law following a federal lawsuit by Thomas More Society and pregnancy resource centers.
READ: Pro-life groups win major victory against Illinois Democrats’ attack on pregnancy centers
According to one prominent pro-life leader in the state, this loss for the pro-abortion movement may be animating this latest legislation.
🚨Send Anne and Rules Committee an email w/easy form at https://t.co/JvHrAP03lf
Call her office today & tell her to pull this bill! Here are the numbers. It will just take 30 seconds to do. Springfield (217) 782-6578 & Downers Grove (630) 605-0595. If vmail, leave a message. https://t.co/OHaA0kKbTJ
— Awake Illinois (@Awake_IL) February 12, 2024
Eric Scheidler, executive director of Pro-Life Action League, mocked the bill as “creative” for finding new ways to “demonize” “pro-life Illinoisans.”
During a phone interview, Scheidler told LifeSiteNews that the measure is “simply designed to be a sop to the pro-abortion forces here in the state of Illinois.”
The legislation “is a response to the massive defeat” Pritzker and Raoul suffered. Pro-Life Action League was a plaintiff in litigation against the state.
The loss led to “criticism” of the governor and attorney general from pro-abortion activists, even though the state had practically no other choice than to effectively nullify the law.
“The pro-abortion radicals in the state don’t really care about the Constitution, they don’t really care about civil rights, they don’t really care about freedom of speech or due process,” Scheidler said.
“They’re mad” at the governor and attorney general, Scheidler suggested.
“I think this may be really an attempt to show again how radically pro-abortion they can be by threatening to go after parents who are trying to dissuade their daughter from getting an abortion,” he said.
The pro-life leader also commented on the irony that a child abuse law, aimed at punishing the physical and emotional damaging of a child, could punish parents for not assisting their daughters in suffering abortions.
“The incredible irony is that a law designed to protect our kids from being exploited, the Parental Notice of Abortion Act, was repealed, and now they’re going ahead and trying to penalize parents” for protecting their daughters from abortion.
The irony is that young girls are made “less safe” by the repeal of parental notification, which can help catch abuse, such as by a teacher, Scheidler underscored.
“It’s pretty obnoxious that they would take a statute about child abuse and twist it in such a way that child abuse, sexual abuse that often leads to abortion, is easier for predators,” he said.
“I think this is something that should be deeply, deeply offensive to Illinois parents,” Scheidler said.
He noted that abortions leaves minor girls in particular emotionally and physically damaged, in addition to destroying innocent human life.
“If we want to protect our daughters, we want to protect them from abortion,” Scheidler said.
While Scheidler only commented on the abortion aspect of the legislation, it is also extensively documented that transgender drugs and surgeries, in addition to promoting the falsehood that someone can change his or her gender, are also physically and emotionally damaging.
Legislation Democrats newest attempt to criminalize being pro-life, opposed to transgenderism
The proposed bill is not a unique case. Democrat officials in recent years have sought to criminalize both being pro-life and being opposed to transgenderism.
For example, Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman twice introduced legislation that appeared to suggest police and social workers could investigate parents for child abuse if they did not support their minors in getting permanent surgical or chemical procedures.
“If the child shares with those mandated reporters what they are going through, we are talking about not only physical abuse or mental abuse, what the job of that mandated reporter is to inform Child Protective Services (CPS),” Guzman, a social worker herself, told an ABC News affiliate. “And then that’s how everybody gets involved. There’s also an investigation in place that is not only from a social worker but there’s also a police investigation before we make the decision that there is going to be a CPS charge.”
A reporter specifically asked Guzman what the penalties would be “if the investigation concludes that a parent is not affirming of their LGBTQ child.”
“Well, we first have to complete an investigation,” Guzman said in her response. “It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor, but we know that CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment.”
She subsequently claimed her views had been misrepresented.
READ: ‘Transgender’ male cyclists steal first and second place in Illinois women’s championships
The state of Washington is also being sued for a law that could take kids from homes if their parents do not support them in identifying as the opposite sex. The legal group leading the charge against the legislation called it “state-sanctioned kidnapping.”
Democratic officials have also long sought to punish pro-life views, including targeting pregnancy centers with punishment for not promoting abortion.
For example, New Jersey Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer launched an attack against the nonprofits, calling them “brainwashing cult clinics.”
New Jersey also sent a broad subpoena request to a pregnancy center in the state, prompting a lawsuit from Alliance Defending Freedom, as reported in December 2023 by LifeSiteNews.