Judge dismisses public-pay abortion challenge; appeal next
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois judge dealt a blow to anti-abortion groups Thursday, dismissing a lawsuit aimed at stopping a law that’s about to take effect that would expand Medicaid and state-employee group health insurance to cover abortions.
Associate Circuit Judge Jennifer Ascher ruled the judiciary should not intervene in “political questions” in the General Assembly, such as a law’s effective date or whether there’s an appropriation to fund it.
Those are the pillars of the lawsuit seeking to stop the law from taking effect Monday. It was filed by the Catholic Thomas More Society on behalf of 11 conservative and Christian groups and a dozen legislators.
State Rep. Peter Breen, a Republican from Lombard and special counsel to the Thomas More Society, said he will appeal the ruling on Friday in Springfield’s 4th District Appellate Court and seek the same injunction he sought from Ascher.
Breen argued that lawmakers passed the measure too late in the year for it to take effect Jan. 1 and they didn’t appropriate funding to cover the cost of the abortions through the publicly funded insurance plans. Despite the ruling, he remained upbeat after the hearing.
“After today’s argument, I’m more confident than ever in the truth and the correctness of our position,” Breen said. “I heard nothing today … that caused me to think that somehow, the General Assembly has done its job any more than it had a few days ago.”
John Wolfsmith, an assistant attorney general representing the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services and other defendants, claimed Breen’s clients are simply trying to buy time by delaying the law’s implementation to June 1.
The law, signed by Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in September, expands Medicaid and state group health insurance plans to cover abortions.
Breen contends that taxpayers will be billed for 30,000 elective abortions annually in Illinois. They will cost $1.8 million, according to the state health care agency.