CV NEWS FEED // Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Monday that his office has agreed to stop enforcing a 2022 state law that targeted pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.
The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (SB 1909) singled out pro-life organizations for using pro-life language and telling new mothers about the risks of abortion. The controversial law characterized pro-life pregnancy centers’ operations as deceptive and fraudulent.
After Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the anti-crisis pregnancy center legislation into law last year, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) sued the state’s attorney general.
The Thomas More Society represented NIFLA in the case. This week, the Thomas More Society announced in a press release that its attorneys filed a “Joint Motion to Enter an Agreed Order” with Raoul, “imposing a Permanent Injunction on the Attorney General.”
Lead counsel Peter Breen “hailed the victory as a significant win for pro-life ministries and free speech in Illinois—which will also serve as a warning to other states across the country that attempt to target pro-life ministries with discriminatory law,” the firm’s press release stated:
The Joint Motion follows an August 3, 2023, preliminary injunction entered by Johnston, which temporarily blocked Illinois’ enforcement of SB 1909. That court order was issued one week after Illinois enacted SB 1909. Thomas More Society attorneys filed the lawsuit against SB 1909 one hour after the law was signed.
Breen explained:
The federal court was spot on in holding that SB 1909 is “both stupid and very likely unconstitutional.” SB 1909 exempts abortion facilities and their speech, while exclusively regulating pro-life organizations and their speech, in flagrant violation of the First Amendment.
A press release from the attorney general’s office downplayed the pro-life victory.
“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 stated.
Breen warned that while the battle had been won against the Illinois measure, there will be more legal battles ahead:
This law [SB 1909] is just one of a number of illegal new laws enacted across the country that restrict pro-life speech—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.
We are honored to represent NIFLA and other life-affirming organizations to protect them from unjust laws like SB 1909 that seek to put a halt to their good work.
