Progress Illinois

Over three years ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich put pharmacists on notice by requiring that they make the morning-after pill (also known as "Plan B") available to patients regardless of their religious or political beliefs. Later that year, two pro-life pharmacists mounted a legal challenge to this "administrative rule," arguing that it violated their religious beliefs.  The case has been working its way through the judicial system ever since.

First, a circuit court ruled in 2005 that the plaintiffs' “right of conscience” argument had no legal merit. In 2007, an appellate court upheld that ruling.  The two pharmacists then took their case to the Illinois Supreme Court.  But instead of rendering a decision today, the high court sent the the plaintiffs back to square one, as the Tribune reported:

The Supreme Court decided the plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence of potential harm to warrant having their case heard in court. Also, it noted, the administrative rule was amended in the settlement of a separate lawsuit last year, providing grounds for a reconsideration of the case.

Now the matter will return to the Sangamon County Circuit Court. While pro-lifers attempted to spin the decision as "supporting" the plaintiffs, I spoke to Illinois Planned Parenthood policy director Pam Sutherland this afternoon and she was confident the rule would ultimately be upheld.  Below is a portion of our conversation:

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Regardless of what President Bush says, abstinence-only sex education has been widely discredited. Last April, a longitudinal study of 2,000 children commissioned by Congress found that preaching abstinence does not keep teenagers from having sex nor does it increase the likelihood that they will use contraception if they do. The results essentially gutted the fundamental premise behind the abstinence-only movement.

Here in Illinois, however, it seems Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the Department of Human Services (DHS) have ignored the overwhelming evidence to this effect. According to the Sexuality and Information Education Council’s (SIECUS) William Smith, the state accepted over $1.8 million in abstinence-until-marriage funds this past fiscal year through a federal funding stream known as Title V. And the money went to some undeserving causes.

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Reporting on the 6th Congressional District race today, NBC 5's Mary Ann Ahern noted Democratic challenger Jill Morgenthaler's criticism of a comment made by GOP Rep. Peter Roskam at a recent editorial meeting.  Ahern reported that Roskam "would not talk about that abortion statement, refusing to clarify it or even discuss it today":

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GOP Rep. Peter Roskam, uncorked:

Morgenthaler, who vaulted over Roselle businessman Stan Jagla in the Democratic primary election with 77 percent of the vote, calls Roskam an "ideologue" because, for example, he opposes abortion even in the case of rape or incest. Citing the late Congressman Henry Hyde, who represented the 6th District for 16 terms until 2006, Roskam said people cannot be categorized by the way in which they were conceived and asked in the Pioneer Press interview why women can have abortions if rapists cannot be executed.

The late Henry Hyde would be awfully proud.

(H/T Capitol Fax)

With time running out and the polls holding steady, a desperate John McCain is throwing the kitchen sink at Barack Obama. In that sink are a boatload of robocalls, a tactic he referred to as "hate calls" when they were used against him eight years ago. As with so many other issues this cycle, McCain has now flipped and is deploying them judiciously as part of an effort to raise concerns about his rival's "character."

One call suggests Obama can't be trusted to keep America safe because he "worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge's home and killed Americans." According to the folks at Talking Points Memo, who created a great interactive map detailing where McCain's slime is surfacing, the Ayers call has gone out to homes in neighboring Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. The call is so nasty that one Wisconsin resident quit his gig at a telemarketing firm whose job it was to conduct the calls. You can listen to it here.

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Taking a page out of Sarah Palin’s base-oriented playbook, John McCain broached an all-too-familiar topic during last night’s final presidential debate: Barack Obama’s record as an Illinois state senator on so-called “partial birth abortions.” While the Democrat expressed the widely-held view that there should be an exception to the ban if the health of the mother is in danger, McCain slathered on the condescension in response.  Using air quotes around "health of the mother," he seemed to suggest that the term is part of some elaborate scheme by pro-choicers to murder infants at will. Watch it:

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Welcome to Nixonland. With our nation in two wars and the world financial system on the brink of collapse, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is now spending her time on the stump drudging up tired and misleading questions about Barack Obama's record on abortion.

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WTTW's Chicago Tonight hosted a debate between Sen. Dick Durbin and GOP challenger Steve Sauerberg last night.  When the topic turned to social issues, Sauerberg focused primarily on his "personal involvement in crisis pregnancy centers."  But not before dropping this little ditty: "[A] U.S. senator doesn't have any impact on any issues in regards to choice versus -- any legislation in that area to speak of." 

Well, that's ... just ... not true at all.

Watch it:

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Exactly one year after its tumultuous grand opening, Aurora's Planned Parenthood complex is standing strong. Despite facing a barrage of lawsuits and protests, officials at the health care center continue to provide a necessary outlet for suburban women:

"The demand [for medical services] has been much greater than we'd thought it would be, and it clearly shows that there was a need in that community," said Steve Trombley, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which maintains that less than 10 percent of the medical services it provides are abortion-related."

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In late August, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a new Bush-favored regulation to “help protect health care providers from [religious] discrimination." In essence, as many as 584,000 employers -- from major hospitals to doctors' offices and nursing homes -- could lose government funding if they don't certify in writing that they are complying with several federal laws that protect health care workers' "freedom of conscience." The AP has more:

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said that health care professionals should not face retaliation from employers or from medical societies because they object to abortion.

"Freedom of conscience is not to be surrendered upon issuance of a medical degree," said Leavitt. "This nation was built on a foundation of free speech. The first principle of free speech is protected conscience."

Why would such a provision need to be passed, when providers are already covered under federal amendments and there is no evidence any are being forced to provide abortions under duress? Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says it's all about politics:

“This proposal would put politics above access to critical health-care services,” said Madigan, who urged state legislators to comment against the regulation as well. “At a time when so many Americans are struggling to find affordable health care and millions of women need access to family planning services, this proposal would severely limit women’s ability to obtain needed reproductive health care.”

Gov. Rod Blagojevich also offered his objections in a September 9 letter to HHS Secretary Michael Levitt:

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