According to a LifeNews article, the Illinois Senate has passed the Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act in a 36-19 vote. The bill, which would impose a $50,000 fine for “misleading practices,” moved to the House where a companion bill has also been filed.
David Smith of the Illinois Family Institute tells AFN the bill represents a major problem for pregnancy centers if it becomes state law as expected.
“Because who gets to determine what 'misinformation' is,” he warns, “but our left-wing, radical attorney general here in Illinois.”
Smith is concerned about the attorney general, Kwame Raoul, because the legislation gives him the legal authority to define “deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or misrepresentation, or the concealment, suppression, or omission of any material fact.”
By that legal logic, Smith says, will Attorney General Raoul sue a center if a counselor tells a pregnant woman life begins at conception?
Speaking of dishonesty, Raoul recently claimed in a statement that women have unknowingly entered pro-life pregnancy centers, and even went through an exam and an ultrasound, only to learn they were not in an actual abortion clinic. But even the attorney general's own statement was deceptive: it refers to abortion clinics as a "different clinic with a full range of reproductive care."
A story by The Federalist pointed out the legislation accuses pregnancy centers of providing “limited services” because they do not provide abortions, even though the pro-life facilities are known for providing everything from ultrasounds and diapers to counseling and STD tests. In the eyes of a Democrat, however, abortion is considered the most important service and a sacred-like act.
So that is why Planned Parenthood-defending Democrats in Washington, Oregon, and California are going after the underfunded pregnancy centers in a David-versus-Goliath fight.
