State (Illinois) Legislation
The Illinois Ultrasound Bill and the Women's Health and Safety Act of 2012 pass out of committee
Both the The Ultrasound Bill HB 4085, and Women's Health and Safety Act of 2012 HB 4117 have passed out of committee and are now on the IL House floor.
The Ultrasound Bill HB 4085
This bill provides that at any facility where abortions are performed the physician who is to perform the abortion, the referring physician, or another qualified person working in conjunction with either physician shall offer any woman seeking an abortion an opportunity to receive and view an active ultrasound of her unborn child by someone qualified to perform ultrasounds at the facility, or at a facility listed in a listing of local ultrasound providers provided by the facility, prior to the woman having any part of an abortion performed or induced, and prior to the administration of any anesthesia or medication in preparation for the abortion.
Women's Health and Safety Act of 2012 HB 4117
This bill amends the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center Act and states that any center where abortions are performed, and any other facility where 50 or more abortions are performed in any calendar year, must comply with all of the statutes, rules, and regulations applicable to ambulatory surgical treatment centers.
These are both good pro-life bills and are now on the IL House floor. It is important that you call your IL Representative and urge them to vote YES on both The Ultrasound Bill HB 4085, and Women's Health and Safety Act of 2012 HB 4117.
To find contact information for your representative, please visit the link below...
http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByAddress.aspx
Federal Legislation
Call Now -- U.S. senators to vote next week on pro-life Blunt Amendment!
Take Action! Click Here:
http://capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=61025131&queueid=7954804261
Phone calls to U.S. senators are urgently needed in support of a vital pro-life amendment that is likely to be voted on around February 28, or within a few days thereafter. Please click on the "Take Action" link above, then enter your zip code in the "Call Now" box, and you will be shown the correct numbers to call and suggested points to make during your call.
The amendment has been offered by pro-life Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and is strongly supported by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). The text of the Blunt Amendment is taken from an NRLC-endorsed bill, the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (S. 1467, H.R. 1179). It would amend the Obama health care law ("ObamaCare") to prevent the imposition of regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance, such as the recent decree that virtually all employers -- including religiously affiliated hospitals and schools -- must purchase health insurance plans that cover all government-approved methods of birth control.
When President Obama's health care legislation was under consideration in the Senate in 2009, NRLC warned that a provision dealing with "preventive health services" would empower the Secretary of Health and Human Services to mandate coverage of any medical service, including abortion, merely by adding the service to an expandable list. Predictably, the Administration issued a decree in August, 2011, covering all FDA-approved birth control methods – a mandate that, unless overturned, will produce an irreconcilable conflict between conscience and the coercive force of government for many employers. In recent months, the Administration's "birth-control mandate" has been strongly characterized as an attack on fundamental religious liberties by the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Association of Evangelicals, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the leaders of many other religious bodies.
But this is not a debate only about the specific parameters of the birth-control mandate. Exactly the same statutory authority could be used by the Administration -- as early as next year -- to mandate that virtually all health plans pay for elective abortion on demand.
The Blunt Amendment goes to the heart of the problem by amending the ObamaCare law itself, to prevent provisions of the law from being used as a basis for regulatory mandates that violate the religious or moral convictions of those who purchase or provide health insurance.
PLEASE CALL TODAY!
Please click on the "Take Action" link at the top of this message. Enter your zip code in the "Call Now" box, and you will be shown the correct phone numbers to call for your two U.S. senators. You will be shown suggested comments that you can make to the staff person who takes the call. You'll also be invited to use the simple "Your Feedback" tool to send NRLC a short email, reporting on how your call went, if you wish to do so.
To view a letter sent by NRLC to senators, which provides more details on this issue, click here (http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/ANDA/NRLCletterBluntAmend.html). To view additional information regarding the Obama Administration's attacks on pro-life health care providers, click here (http://www.nrlc.org/Federal/ANDA/index.html).
Take Action By Clicking Here:
http://capwiz.com/nrlc/issues/alert/?alertid=61025131&queueid=7954804261
Click here for other Federal Legislative Alerts
