A Democrat-backed bill sitting on Governor JB Pritzker’s desk would turn Illinois into an assisted suicide destination and severely curtail the rights of Christian doctors, a conservative legal group is warning.
Just a few hours after midnight on Halloween morning, Democrats in the Illinois Senate rammed through legislation that would legalize doctor-assisted suicide in a 30–27 vote. The bill, which was passed by the state House in May, is awaiting Pritzker’s signature. It would allow doctors to prescribe deadly pills to those who are sick and have been given a prognosis of less than six months to live.
Conservative groups in the state say that the legislation would force doctors to promote and make referrals for the deadly practice.
“You’re not just allowing physicians to give people deadly drugs to kill themselves, but you’re actually forcing us or people of faith, to be part of it, to promote it,” Peter Breen, the head of litigation at Thomas More Society, told The Daily Wire. “I know of no other state where the legislature has gone this far in restricting the religious liberty rights of people of faith.”
While the bill says that doctors would not be forced to participate in prescribing the fatal pills, Breen said that the text contains provisions that would “force institutions and physicians to refer for and to inform about the opportunity to take deadly drugs and end your life.”
Breen noted that parts of the bill would make it impossible for a Christian hospital to fire a doctor who promoted assisted suicide or facilitated one off the grounds of the hospital.
Currently, 11 states and Washington, D.C., allow for physician-assisted suicide, but Illinois would be the first in America’s heartland.
“Illinois would become the first state in the middle of the country to enact assisted suicide,” Breen said. “There’s a significant concern that this is going to turn Illinois into a suicide tourism state.”
He said that what Illinois Democrats were trying to do was “beyond the pale” and that assisted suicide was in opposition to Christian ethics. The Illinois Catholic Conference has come out strongly against the bill and urged Pritzker to veto it.
While Breen acknowledged that Pritzker was one of the most leftist governors in America, he said he had some “hope” that he would veto it because of the religious liberty implications.
Pritzker has not yet signaled whether he will sign the measure.
“I know how terrible it is that someone who’s in the last six months of their life could be experiencing terrible pain and anguish. And I know people who’ve gone through that,” he said on Monday. “It hits me deeply and makes me wonder about, you know, how we can alleviate the pain that they’re going through?”
If Pritzker signs the legislation, Breen said that the Thomas More Society would sue to block it. The law firm has already challenged Illinois over a similar law forcing crisis pregnancy centers to promote abortion.
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