Judge Iain D. Johnston previously said the state law was ‘both stupid and very likely unconstitutional.’
A federal judge permanently blocked an Illinois law on Dec. 14 that he previously called “stupid” that targets maternal health care centers and sidewalk counselors for expressing their pro-life message.
The state of Illinois consented to the injunction and the dismissal of the underlying lawsuit filed against it.
Plaintiffs who sued to stop the law objected to it because it declared that the pro-life speech engaged in by pregnancy help ministries was a “deceptive business practice.”
They litigated to protect the right of pro-life pregnancy help centers and sidewalk counselors across the state to continue their work reaching out to women across the Land of Lincoln facing unplanned pregnancies.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, appeared on CNN on Aug. 4 to defend the law.
The statute is constitutional, the governor argued at the time.
“Well, it’s just like the case against President [Donald] Trump,” he said.
“You have a right to free speech, but you don’t have a right to lie. You don’t have a right to use those lies to push people into situations in which they, frankly, are breaking the law, or where they are unaware of what their full rights are. So, you know, we need to make sure that people know [what] their rights are.”
The law barred “so-called ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ from using misinformation, deceptive practices, or misrepresentation in order to interfere with access to abortion services or emergency contraception,” according to the governor’s office.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, a Democrat, previously said the now-enjoined law was needed because he had “witnessed deceptive crisis pregnancy center tactics firsthand on a visit to tour a Planned Parenthood health center in Illinois.”
There were “people who appeared as though they might work there … outside attempting to divert patients away from the health center,” he said.
Judge Iain D. Johnston of the Western Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued the document titled “agreed permanent injunction order” (pdf) in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NILFA) v. Raoul. Judge Johnston was appointed in 2020 by President Trump.
