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The
lawsuit centered around Senate Bill 1909, which would have
allowed the Illinois Attorney General's Office to shut down
pregnancy resource centers in Illinois if the AG's office
concluded they were conducting deceptive practices.
On Monday, after months of litigation, the Thomas More Society
and Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul reached an agreement
imposing a permanent injunction preventing implementation of the
law.
Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society discussed what this means
with The Center Square.
"The parties have now submitted to the courts an Agreed Order
that would permanently enjoin Attorney General Kwame Raoul from
enforcing Senate Bill 1909 against the plaintiffs," Breen said.
"This would be complete relief for the pregnancy centers in
Illinois."
The lawsuit stems from legislation passed by the General
Assembly and signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
"The legislature singled out fact statements about abortion and
opinion statements about abortion, and the legislature cannot
determine what is true or false in an area of significant public
concern like abortion or any other hotly debated topic," Breen
said.
Breen said the issue with the law centered around free speech
and how that is impacted when parties share different views.
"It makes a great statement, not only to the people of Illinois
but to folks around the country, that free speech is important,"
Breen said. "While we have disagreements on the issue of
abortion or many other issues, the solution is not to silence
our opponents. It is to allow more speech."
SB1909, which has been called both "stupid" and very likely
unconstitutional by courts in the past, will now never become
law in Illinois and imposes a permanent injunction on Raoul
preventing his office from enforcing it.
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