Cardinal Blase Cupich and Illinois’ bishops gathered in Springfield today to oppose changes to the state’s abortion laws.
One proposal would require private insurance to cover abortion and would lift a ban on so-called partial birth abortion.
The cardinal says the same measure would remove a clause that allows health care professionals to refuse to perform abortions on religious or moral grounds.
“Does the state of Illinois want to become a place where people are forced to do things in the workplace against their deepest held beliefs?”
However, the ACLU of Illinois, which helped write the bill, said a current right of conscience law still protects those rights.
Ed Yonka, a spokesman for the ACLU, said, “This really does continue a disturbing pattern wherein we’re beginning to see heated rhetoric and false claims to try to derail this legislation.
A spokesman for the Catholic Conference asked if the clause isn’t needed, why would it be removed from the new proposal?
