East Central Reporter

State Rep. Brad Halbrook, R-107th, hailed a recent judicial stay as a significant stride toward safeguarding the constitutional rights of pro-life advocates nationwide. He criticized the notion of shutting down crisis pregnancy centers based on differing viewpoints and emphasized that these centers operate transparently, serving women voluntarily and without state funding.

“The judicial stay granted in the National Institute of Family Life Advocates et al. v. Raoul case is a major step toward preserving the Constitutional rights of pro-life activists not just in Illinois but across the country,” Halbrook said on Facebook. “The idea that crisis pregnancy centers can be shut down simply because the people in charge of our state do not like their point of view is absurd but more importantly, it is dangerous.”

He continued to mention the people working at the centers are mostly women volunteering their time, his Facebook post reported.

“They receive no state money, and the women who walk into these centers are there of their own free will. These centers are upfront about being pro-life. They are upfront about their desire to help women choose life rather than abortion," Halbrook added, according to Facebook. "There is nothing deceptive about the work being done at these centers. In fact, Attorney General Kwame Raoul could not cite one example of any crisis pregnancy center being accused of deceptive practices. This law is a radical attack on the free speech rights of everyday citizens and hopefully the actions taken today are the first steps toward overturning this outrageous law.”

Judge Iain Johnston’s ruling on the matter was a harsh rebuke of the Illinois lawmakers who passed the bill, according to Capitol News Illinois. 

“Justice Scalia once said that he wished all federal judges were given a stamp that read ’stupid but constitutional,’” Johnston said to Capitol News Illinois. “SB 1909 is both stupid and very likely unconstitutional.”

The judge’s ruling, based on First Amendment grounds, has ignited a debate between abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion groups over the free speech rights of these centers, which provide support to pregnant individuals, WTTW reported. The lawsuit was launched by Thomas More Society to stop SB 1909 which provided a legal mechanism to block pregnancy resource centers from seeking to attract would-be mothers that may be considering getting an abortion. 

The judge issued a preliminary injunction on the grounds that the law likely violated the First Amendment, causing a conflict between abortion rights advocates who claim these centers employ deceptive tactics and anti-abortion groups asserting their First Amendment rights, according to WTTW.

“In short, the law openly targets alleged pro-life ‘misinformation’ on the basis that that pro-life views conflict with Illinois’s rampant pro-abortion ideology,” the Thomas More Society wrote on its website. “But in doing so, the law runs headlong into bedrock protections of the First Amendment, which prohibit government from cutting off one side of ongoing controversies by censoring speech with which it disagrees, and from discriminating against religiously motivated speech.

"The ‘Deceptive Practices of Limited Services Pregnancy Centers Act’ is a blatant attempt to stamp out access to vital women’s pregnancy resources across the state, simply because pregnancy help centers do not provide abortions and 'emergency contraception,'” the organization continued.