ANTI- ABORTION GROUPS, GOP LAWMAKERS SUE STATE OVER ABORTION LAW
A group of Republican legislators and anti- abortion groups filed a lawsuit Thursday in downstate Illinois — dubbing it a “counterattack” on legislation Gov. Bruce Rauner signed in August to expand taxpayer funding of abortions.
The Thomas More Society filed the petition against Illinois officials — including Democrats Comptroller Susana Mendoza and Treasurer Michael Frerichs, as well as the heads of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Department of Central Management Services. But Rauner — who took much heat over his decision to sign the bill — isn’t named as a defendant.
The suit focuses on what plaintiffs see as potential fiscal challenges the new law would bring “apart from the sincere moral objections that many folks have to paying for abortions,” according to state Rep. Peter Breen, R- Lombard, who is also serving as the special counsel to the Thomas More Society.
The bill Rauner signed ensures abortion remains legal in Illinois even if the U. S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, while also allowing women with Medicaid and state- employee health insurance to use their coverage for abortions.
The complaint alleges that the state currently performs about 40,000 abortions a year — nearly all paid for by non- state taxpayer sources. But the group believes that under House Bill 40, Illinois taxpayers would have to pay for “20,000 to 30,000 or more” elective abortions per year “at a cost in the tens of millions of dollars,” the suit says.
A fiscal note filed by the Department of Healthcare and Family Service estimated the bill’s cost at $ 1.8 million a year.