Abortion laws do more than 'tweak' health care

I read with interest Dushan Lipensky's letter entitled: "Abortion in guise of reproductive health." The writer goes on to say that "our Illinois House is considering modernizing the Reproductive Health Act. They want to tweak it just a little."

This may be the understatement of the year when we consider that the RHA is almost 90 pages long and rewrites eight significant changes in current Illinois law. The new law will remove all existing protections in Illinois state law for the unborn child. In fact this new legislation will be the most radical piece of abortion legislation that has ever been introduced in Illinois and the most radical proposed in any state to date.

Here is a summary of these eight significant changes to Illinois HB 2495 and SB 1942. A partner component to these bills is HB 2467 and SB 1594.

1. Illinois will become a third-trimester abortion destination, removing all late-term limits.

2. Illinois will become an underage abortion destination, by repealing the parental notice act.

3. Illinois women will fall victim to substandard, uninspected abortion facilities, by removing nearly all public safety requirements on abortion and abortion clinics.

4. Illinois will remove public health protection by allowing abortions to be performed by nurses and nurse practitioners.

5. Illinois will force all insurance plans to provide free abortions including church plans.

6. Illinois will declare that the unborn child will have no rights under the law.

7. Illinois will remove abortion-related conscience protections from nurses, doctors and hospitals.

8. Illinois will remove all public reporting of abortion statistics.

If these bills become law, Illinois will have the most radical abortion laws in America. Edmund Burke once said "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Larry O'Neill

Palatine