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STATE SENATE OKS ABORTION RULES
By Jeannine Koranda
SI Springfield Bureau
[Fri Mar 30 2001]
SPRINGFIELD -- Abortion opponents scored a victory Friday in the Illinois Senate, as three proposals aimed at restricting the availability of abortions passed.

State Sen. Patrick J. O'Malley, R-Palos Park, said he wanted to protect babies who could survive if they had medical help as soon as they left the womb.

But abortion-rights activists called the legislation a "veiled attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade," the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that declared the right to an abortion is legal.

Pam Sutherland, president of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, said Friday that few abortions would be performed. "It literally bans all types of abortion unless there was a second physician present to attend to the aborted fetus."

O'Malley said he sponsored the legislation after he heard about hospitals inducing labor to abort fetuses who might have long-term health concerns if they survived.

The hospitals did not provide medical attention to the infants even if they were breathing. O'Malley said some of the infants survived two to eight hours without medical attention.

"That a child must be viable when it was born to be entitled to live is absolutely inhumane, and wrong-headed," he said.

The legislation would require a second doctor to attend any abortion where there is a good chance the procedure would result in a "born-alive baby." The proposal passed 34-6-12.

The legislation defines "born alive" as any movement or breathing outside the womb, regardless of whether or not the expulsion was brought about by an abortion, by other surgical means, or by a natural or induced birth. It passed 34-5-13.

It also opens the door to civil lawsuits if the baby does not receive immediate care. That measure passed 33-6-13.

Abortion-rights supporters say the measure is too broad. But there was little debate in the Senate over the proposals.

The only objection came from state Sen. Barack Obama, D-Chicago, who argued that the legislation would be ruled unconstitutional in the courts.

O'Malley called Obama's argument misleading.

"The child is no longer in the woman's body under the circumstances covered under this legislation and is therefore a U.S. citizen under the Constitution and protected," he said.

O'Malley said he hoped the legislation would come up for a vote in the House. He said he did not have a sponsor yet.

Sutherland said the legislation would have a tougher time in the House.

"Members of the House will see the unconstitutionality of it."

All Southern Illinoisan senators voted "yes" on the abortion restrictions.

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