Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has given up on defending a state law, dubbed "stupid and likely unconstitutional," which specifically would have empowered Raoul's office to use the state's consumer fraud law to sue abortion opponents working through crisis pregnancy centers over alleged "misinformation."
Those who would have been targeted by the law say it amounted to little more than an effort by the state's pro-abortion Democratic supermajority in Springfield to target and silence religious and political speech disfavored by the state's current leaders.
On Dec. 11, attorneys representing pro-life organizations and crisis pregnancy centers and Raoul's office presented U.S. District Judge Iaian Johnston with an agreed order, under which Raoul agreed to never attempt to enforce the provisions of the state law known as Senate Bill 1909.
Peter Breen, Executive Vice President & Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society
| https://www.thomasmoresociety.org/attorneys/peter-breen
The attorneys for the abortion opponents said the deal represented a major win for free speech and religious freedom.
"This law is just one of a number of illegal new laws enacted across the country that restrict pro-life speech," said Peter Breen, a former Illinois state representative who now serves as executive vice president and head of litigation for the Thomas More Society, which represented the pro-life groups in court.
"We hope this permanent injunction, with full attorney’s fees, serves as a warning to other states that would seek to follow Illinois and try to silence pro-life viewpoints."
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB1909 into law in late July. The law took effect immediately. It would empower the attorney general’s office to use Illinois’ consumer fraud law to investigate crisis pregnancy centers for “misinformation” related to abortion and human reproduction, and then potentially penalize those pregnancy centers with fines or closure orders.
In statements at the time the law was approved in the General Assembly, and at the time Pritzker signed it into law, supporters lent full-throated support to SB1909.
Supporters said the law was needed to protect woman from alleged “deception” at the hands of pro-life advocates who seek to talk with women arriving at abortion clinics, or who operate crisis pregnancy centers, which then provide a range of services to women, with the goal of persuading them to choose to carry the pregnancy to term, rather than choose to terminate the fetus.
Supporters of the law said it was needed to essentially prevent opponents of abortion from allegedly misleading women into birthing their babies, rather than choosing abortion.
The law was immediately challenged in a lawsuit filed in Rockford federal court by Breen and the Thomas More Society, on behalf of the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA), the Pro-Life Action League, and crisis pregnancy center operators in McHenry, Rockford and Highland.
Within days, Judge Johnston had issued an order blocking the state from enforcing SB1909. The order harshly criticized Raoul for championing and attempting to defend a law his own deputies had publicly conceded is unnecessary to achieve its stated goal.
The judge further specifically noted Raoul and his fellow Democrats specifically exempted abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from the law's reach, even if those abortion providers were to make claims about abortion as untruthful and farcical as "abortion cures male pattern baldness."
"It is stupid because its own supporter admitted it was unneeded and was unsupported by evidence when challenged," Johnston wrote in his order from early August. "It is likely unconstitutional because it is a blatant example of government taking the side of whose speech is sanctionable and whose speech is immunized - on the very same subject no less.
"SB 1909 is likely classic content and viewpoint discrimination prohibited by the First Amendment."
Johnston was appointed to the federal bench in 2020 by former President Donald Trump, with the vocal support of Illinois Democratic Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth.
After the ruling this summer, Pritzker had criticized the judge's order, saying it was born of a "far-right" campaign to interfere "with the ability for women to access safe medical care without deception or lies." He said he was "confident that the law will ultimately be found constitutional."
Raoul, however, did not appear to share that same confidence, and agreed to surrender, rather than risk any further embarrassing losses in court over the law.
“As filed, this proposed order is agreed to by the parties in this case and in no way affects my ongoing work protecting women’s rights to access the full range of reproductive health services," Raoul said in a prepared statement announcing the deal. "Furthermore, this proposed order does not alter Illinois’ Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Practices Act or my office’s preexisting authority under the act, and I remain committed to protecting consumers against all deceptive practices."
NIFLA President Thomas Glessner said his organization was "elated that ... this unconstitutional law will never go into effect."
"SB 1909 was an absolute weaponization of government that unfairly and unconstitutionally targeted pregnancy centers simply because they refused to refer for or perform abortions. Let this be a stern example of what awaits those who are attempting to pass and enforce similar laws—look to Illinois and save taxpayer dollars for actually helping their communities instead of going after organizations that help women and their families.”