Victory in the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Case!

Reproductive rights advocates in Illinois have a reason to celebrate today! This morning, the Illinois Appellate Court issued a ruling reversing a Cook County Circuit Court decision granting a motion by the State of Illinois to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Illinois challenging the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act.

Lorie A. Chaiten, Director of the ACLU of Illinois Reproductive Rights Project issued the following statement:

Today’s ruling by the Illinois Appellate Court protects the most vulnerable young women in our state. The Court’s decision recognizes that there are serious constitutional issues raised by the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act and permits our clients to return to the Circuit Court to present our strong case showing that the Act threatens the health and well-being of young women. The law remains under injunction and cannot be enforced.

We look forward to presenting evidence to a trial court to demonstrate that the harms this law imposes cannot be justified.

Although this fight is not over yet, today's ruling was a huge step towards protecting the safety of Illinois teens. Planned Parenthood agrees that in an ideal world, parents would be involved in their teens' health care, and engaged in healthy dialogue around responsible decision making. Most teens seek their parents' advice and counsel when making decisions about their health care. But in some cases, safe and open communication is not possible. In those cases, research shows mandatory parental notice laws do not enhance parent-teen communication, but they may be harmful to teens' health and well-being.

We applaud today's decision and encourage our government to focus on giving Illinois teens the information they need to make responsible decisions and continue to encourage healthy family communication, not erect barriers to critical health care services.

Technorati tags: Planned Parenthood, ALCU, Parental Notice