Springfield: With all the focus on the financial crisis in Illinois, and whether we would have our schools open this fall, there’s been little attention paid to other issues, no matter how controversial.
Perhaps… until now.
With a budget passed and the schools now funded, the legislature is sending a bill to Gov Rauner that would expand the funding of abortions for Medicaid recipients and state workers via their state insurance.
HB-40 was passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature, but had been held back on a legislative hold, but now that is released, which means the Governor will have until late November to decide if he will sign it into law, or veto it.
In part, the bill amends the Illinois Public Aid Code by removing a provision excluding abortions or induced miscarriages or premature births from the list of services provided under the State’s medical assistance program.
The Legislature is coming back into session in late October, and early November, to take up the Fall Veto Session. Should the Gov act quickly on the bill, with a veto, he could then put the pressure back on the legislature to take a vote to override.
The Governor has had his share of controversy but has not wade deep into the boiling waters of abortion rights — and would likely wish to avoid that pool altogether.
One Democrat running for Governor, Sen Dan Biss, offered this comment on Monday, “After promising to sign every provision of HB40, Rauner is playing politics instead of standing up for a woman’s right to choose.
But as Rauner waits to see where the wind blows, hundreds of thousands of women wonder what Trump’s America could mean for them. Amidst attacks from Washington, we have a responsibility to defend every Illinoisan—that’s why I co-sponsored HB40, and why I’m calling on Rauner to sign it into law today.”
But in this grace period where we’re not hearing how the state is collapsing on a daily basis — perhaps the Gov will opt to take his time and weigh the politics of how to handle this abortion issues, which some say will protect abortion rights in Illinois, should President Trump get enough justices approved on the US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade, and return the United States to what the law was prior to January 1973 [Roe decision], when abortion rights were determined state-by-state.
