Ten Ways to Avoid Telling Your Parents You’re Pregnant Under House Bill 955 - The "Parental Avoidance Bill"

Tell me why abortion supporters are so upset with the Illinois Supreme Court's activating House Bill 955, a bill passed 11 years ago.

(The map is from Wikipedia. Pink shows where girls can get an abortion without telling their parents. The closest state seems to be New York.)

HB 955 is toothless. If there were ever a fake parental notification law, this is it.

Here was my April 5, 1995, floor speech against House Bill 955, the fake parental notification law that the Illinois Supreme Court is about to consider writing rules for:

This is definitely a “headline bill” without the substance which is promised. There is secrecy throughout this bill.

There is a court bypass I which there is total secrecy. If you read the language in the bill, which I suspect most of us have not, you will see…you won’t even know how many…reporters won’t even be able to go the courthouse to find out how manypeople have requested a judicial bypass. It said that the Governor will sign this bill and I guess the secrecy involved is consistent with Department of Public Health’s refusal to release the number of abortions performed in Illinois.

On November 11, excuse me, November 22, 1989, the Ragsdale Case came down I the State of Illinois—a consent decree.

In that consent decree was the ability, in fact, the mandate, for the Department of Public Aid…Public Health to count abortions. To this date the Department of Public Health has not released any monthly or annual statistics of the number of abortions in Illinois.

The best guess we have comes from the abortion industry, from Planned Parenthood, over 70,000.

But secrecy is consistent with this bill, Mr. Speaker.

All a girl has to do to get an abortion is to go into the abortionist’s office and claim in writing that she has suffered neglect.

Now, I will go back through some of the reasons that she could use I a minute, but I would like to point out that there is absolutely no audit of the abortionist’s records. So, as absurd as you may think, some of the examples I’m about to read are, no one is going to be able to look at the abortionist’s records.

1) Now, if you wanted to get an abortion without telling your parents, under this bill, first of all you would tell a grandparent, maybe a couple of thousand miles away to write you a note of approval and maybe granny or grandfather would do that for you.

2) Secondly, you could get a friend to write and sign the note saying it’s from your parent.

3) Thirdly, you could get some adult to go in…in the abortionist’s office with you and say, “This is my child. I approve giving her an abortion.” They’re not going to have to check on the identity of the person.

4) Fourthly, you could go to the Circuit Clerk’s office and ask for help in getting an abortion. The clerk’s office will tell you how to get a free lawyer. Everything will be secret. I re-emphasize that no one will know you’ve been to court. Your parents won’t know that you’ve been to court. In fact, no one in the entire county will ever know that you’ve been to court or that anyone has been to court.

5) Of course, you could just go to the abortion clinic and ask them to send your parent a certified letter and, then, tell your parent that the sheriff’s department has been trying to serve you a summons. Now, certified letters are attempted to be served three times. If you don’t sign the little form, the certified letter doesn’t get…doesn’t get delivered.

6) Well, you could write down that your stepparent or one of your parents or grandparents had fondled you. You’ll get the abortion and you’ll get that grandparent, stepparent or parent in big trouble with the Department of Children and Family Services.

7) You could write that your stepparent or one of your grandparents or parents has neglected you because he or she refused you enough food or enough clothing. You’ll get the abortion, but you probably won’t get parents in any trouble. The doctor won’t report that to DCFS.

8) You could go to the abortion clinic and write down that you’re…that you had a headache last night and your parent or stepparent refuses to get you an aspirin. Now we all know that a school child can’t get an aspirin without their parents’ permission, but, somehow, I think the abortionist will go with the money, give you the abortion and probably this won’t get you in any trouble at all.

9) You could write that one of your stepparents or your grandparents or your parents has neglected you because she locked you out of the house because you didn’t make it back by curfew time. You’ll get the abortion and certainly you won’t get your relative in any trouble.

10) Or you could just go in and say you’ve in mental anguish, no, you have to write it down, you can’t just say it, you’re in mental anguish because you can’t talk to your parents, you can’t tell your parents you’re pregnant. In fact, you’ve never been able to talk to your parents about anything and you want an abortion. You’ll get the abortion and no one will be told.

This bill may be titled, “Parental Notice,” but it is not parental notice.

Parents can be avoided under this bill so easily that it does not deserve the title.

This bill, it seems to me, will continue the cover-up of abortions in the State of Illinois which the Department of Public Health and, now, this General Assembly that passes this bill and, if the Governor signs it, are deliberately presenting to the public.

It does not deserve to be called “parental notice.”

It is a “parental avoidance bill”

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Then a pro-abortion legislator stood up to oppose the bill.

The proponents of the bill did not dispute the loopholes I outlined.

More views you won't read elsewhere on McHenry County Blog.