SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (OSV News) ─ Pro-life advocates on March 19 called on nearly 3,000 marchers at the Illinois State Capitol to oppose a potential amendment that they said would enshrine abortion and gender transitions, including for minors, in the Illinois constitution.
The Illinois Pro-life March highlighted Illinois as the No. 1 destination in the country for out-of-state abortions due to numerous liberal abortion laws that organizers said have left the elective termination of pregnancy mostly unregulated ─ and therefore risky, should serious complications occur.
"We are in, I would argue, the hardest state in the country right now for abortion" opposition, said Mary Kate Zander, president of Illinois Right to Life, the march's main organizer, before the march.
Zander said the advocacy group has been demanding transparency from legislators, particularly about amending the state constitution to guarantee so-called "reproductive freedom."
Illinois lawmakers would have to act on the amendment language by May 5 to put it before voters in November as a referendum.
Pro-life lobbyists have pointed out the passage of controversial bills often happens in the last hours ─ and even minutes ─ of legislative or veto sessions and in unexpected ways, such as using an amendment to replace the text of an innocuous or routine regulatory bill with the controversial bill's text.
Because of such tactics, "we don't have the time to fight legislation before it's enacted," said Zander, a Catholic.
Illinois Right to Life has expressed concern over the possible constitutional amendment, claiming it would affect all aspects of reproduction, including the altering of one's sexual organs.
Zander said now was the time to look closely at the issue because Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is up for reelection in November.
In the inauguration speech for his second term in January 2023, Pritzker stated his opposition to the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned its previous precedent that held abortion as a constitutional right. He called for "constitutional protection for reproductive rights in Illinois."
"The extremists still want to take away a woman's right to choose, and I don't intend to let them," he said.
Zander said the all-encompassing "reproductive freedom" label would likely mean support for gender transitions, including for minors without parental consent.
Through two Freedom of Information Act requests and a formal complaint with the Illinois Attorney General's Office, Illinois Right to Life was able to obtain an email that showed state administration officials had discussed the possibility of submitting and putting to a vote "proposed constitutional amendments protecting both reproductive freedom and LGBTQ rights."
"In Illinois, it's true that abortion is widely available in our state. We believe that's why they'll use this reproductive freedom language, because that's not just abortion," Zander said. "It's sex changes for minors without parental consent. It's taxpayer-funded sex changes. It's a whole long list of things that fall into this very vague category."
"We believe that it's a violation of the human person's dignity to try to make a biological change that you ultimately can't truly permanently make to the person's body," she said.
In March 2023 guidance for Catholic health care institutions on "respecting the fundamental order of the human body," the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' doctrine committee stated medical interventions that "exchange the sex characteristics of a patient's body for those of the opposite sex … do not respect the fundamental order of the human person as an intrinsic unity of body and soul, with a body that is sexually differentiated."
Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at Thomas More Society, a major sponsor of the Illinois Pro-life March, told OSV News the Catholic-run public interest firm has tried to keep similar amendments off the ballots in Missouri and Nebraska, but was unsuccessful. But he said he believed those lessons can be brought to bear in Illinois and help voters realize the amendment is not necessary and "does not reflect their deepest held beliefs and values."
"Here in Illinois, you might have a populace that is, say, moderately pro-choice on abortion, but they are certainly not in favor of some of the more radical initiatives" such as gender transition, Breen said.
Breen also announced during the rally that the Thomas More Society has prepared a lawsuit to fight aspects of Illinois' physician-assisted suicide law, which is set to take effect in September. He told OSV News it would be filed this spring.
In the rally's opening prayer, Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield invoked the intercession of St. Joseph as "protector of the Holy Family" on his March 19 feast day.
He told the crowd not to be discouraged as they address issues affecting both the beginning and end of life.
"I do believe that we will be able to change minds and hearts and laws to protect all human life from conception to natural death," he said.
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Simone Orendain is an OSV News correspondent and writes from Chicago.
