Law expands abortion licensure

Springfield | In the final minutes of the Illinois General Assembly session ending January 10, lawmakers in both House and Senate approved regulation changes to expand licensure for abortion practitioners.

House Bill 4664 allows registered nurses and physicians assistants to perform non-anesthesia abortions. A physician will not need to be present, as Illinois Right to Life pointed out. It also allows health care providers to retain their Illinois medical licenses despite having their licenses revoked in another state for performing a procedure that is legal in Illinois.

The legislation, which IRL Executive Director Mary Kate Zander called “horrific and sweeping,” also limits legal action against “healthcare professionals and medical institutions for the wrongful death of a person caused by a botched abortion, as long as the abortion was legal and consensual,” she said.

IRL Assistant Legislative Chair Molly Malone, who was in the capitol hallways while legislators were debating reconciliation of differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill, said the legislation will result in recruitment of staff who have performed illegal abortions in other states. “HB 4664, combined with the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and the repeal of parental notification, genuinely takes abortion to the back alley—and does so at taxpayer expense,” Malone told the Illinois Baptist

Differences in the House and Senate versions were reconciled just before the deadline and the measure went to the Governor’s desk for his signature. The final version did not include “language that directly attacked pregnancy resource centers and sidewalk counselors” or “language allocating taxpayer funding to abortions performed on women from outside the state of Illinois,” IRL reported.

Sen. Sue Rezin of Peru said the legislation as passed “allows the Governor to ignore provisions within our constitution.” She tweeted after the session ended, “Illinois has reached a point beyond being an abortion-friendly state to being a state of extreme pro-abortion laws.”

The legislation could lead to further expansion of abortion measures and limitations on the status of the fetus, Rep.

Shirt offends mall cop

A street preacher wearing a T-shirt that read “Jesus Saves” was told to remove the shirt or leave the Mall of America in Minnesota. On an earlier visit, Paul Shorro was told to stop handing out tracts because it was deemed religious soliciting. He complied with that request, but he objected when the security guard said Shorro’s shirt was offensive. The back side read “Jesus is the only way” and the word “coexist” was crossed out. “Jesus is associated with religion and it’s offending people,” the guard said. Shorro pointed out his first amendment rights. Eventually another officer intervened and Shorro was allowed to wear the shirt. A video of the encounter posted on Facebook has gone viral.

– Info from The Baptist Paper, Pew Research Center, Christian Post

Jil Tracy of Quincy warned on the House floor. “That fetus, whether born or unborn, still has rights, criminally, in this state,” Tracy said. “God help us if we remove that stipulation, but it is coming, I suspect.”

Leading cause of death worldwide

Abortions were quadruple the number deaths from infectious diseases in 2022, according to info from the World Health Organization, making 44 million abortions the top cause of death in the world. Communicable diseases killed 13 million people, cancer claimed 8 million, smoking 5 million, alcohol-related deaths 2.5 million, and AIDS 2 million. This is the fourth year in a row that abortion claimed more lives than the other top causes.

Fewer recorded after Roe decision

Fourteen states that halted or limited abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade reported 125,082 fewer abortions in the second half of 2022. A 15-week abortion ban in Florida stopped 3,805 abortions, according to Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America. An Iowa law preventing abortion after sixweeks affected 1,918 abortion decisions.

Pro-life march moves to capital

March for Life Chicago has renamed itself Illinois March for Life and moved its annual march to the State Capitol in Springfield on March 21. The event’s website states as “abortions are no longer concentrated in Chicago and no longer limited to just Illinois residents” organizers wanted to move the march to where what it calls those “egregious” laws are being made. For more information visit illinois marchforlife.org.

– info from The Center Square, WorldOMeter, Christian Post

Biggerstaff charged with grooming

Mt. Vernon | A pastor from McLeansboro was arrested Jan. 5 on two counts of grooming minors for sexual purposes. Garrett Biggerstaff was charged after a four-month investigation that included seizure of his electronic devices and collection of evidence at his home. A juvenile first reported the claims to Benton police. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department led the investigation which produced evidence to support a second charge. Biggerstaff was taken into custody and booked at the Jefferson County jail in Mt. Vernon.

Biggerstaff, 28, was employed by the

Spring Garden Consolidated Community School District in Ina, but he resigned from the school position when the investigation became public in November. He was also pastor of Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Fairfield. The church suspended Biggerstaff immediately after they learned about the investigation, and he did not return to the pulpit. Following his arrest in January, Biggerstaff offered the church his resignation, which was accepted in a church business meeting Jan. 8. Biggerstaff’s first appearance in court is set for Feb. 14.