Legislation aims to prevent deceptive practices by groups seeking to deter women from abortions
A measure aimed at keeping anti-abortion pregnancy centers from employing deceptive practices in an effort to dissuade women from seeking the procedure has been sent by Illinois legislators to Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who already has indicated his support.
Sometimes referred to as “limited practice facilities,” the nonprofit clinics operate nationwide and often open near or even adjacent to clinics where abortions are performed. The bill, passed by the House last week after earlier clearing the Senate, empowers the Illinois attorney general to investigate claims that a limited practice facility engaged in fraud, deception or false pretense. Violations could lead to fines of up to $50,000.
“This is literally giving and clarifying the authority of the attorney general in order to prosecute these cases where people are using misleading and deceptive practices in order to take women away from being able to actually get the abortion care that they are looking for,” Democratic state Sen. Celina Villanueva of Chicago said in an interview.
Opponents say the bill violates the First Amendment, discriminates against certain organizations and gives too much leeway to the attorney general’s office to decide what facilities should be penalized.
“The language in this bill is extremely vague and unclear,” Assistant Republican House Leader Jackie Haas, whose district includes Kankakee, said during a House floor debate. “Organizations are left to question their methods of operation and it’s very ambiguous and seemingly open to interpretation by only the attorney general.”
The bill was approved as Illinois faces a surge in out-of-state abortion patients following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that guaranteed the right to an abortion nationwide.
Illinois is one of the few remaining Midwest states with strong reproductive rights protections, including the 2019 Reproductive Health Act, which declares abortion a fundamental right in Illinois. As of 2020, when Roe was still intact, about 10,000 patients were already traveling from other states to have an abortion in Illinois. Abortion providers have predicted that around 20,000 to 30,000 additional patients will be crossing state lines each year to terminate a pregnancy in Illinois after the fall of Roe.
Documenting deceptive practices allegedly employed by anti-abortion groups can be difficult, but abortion advocacy groups like the Chicago Abortion Fund, which provides support to people seeking abortions, say they hear of such efforts frequently.
Methods include “falsely advertising services, period, on their websites. Being very vague in terms of what they do or do not provide. Listing abortions so that it comes up when people who are searching for abortion care,” said Alicia Hurtado, a helpline case manager and movement building manager for the Chicago Abortion Fund.
“It’s all very intentional and targeted towards people who are seeking or considering abortion care,” Hurtado said.
Brigid Leahy, vice president of public policy at Planned Parenthood of Illinois, described situations in which someone from a pregnancy center will stand in front of an abortion clinic wearing an official-looking vest or name tag and holding a clipboard. The individual might flag down drivers approaching the clinic and tell patients “you need to check in here,” and then ask to see a driver’s license.
“They’re told, ‘Oh, your appointment is next door, you need to go next door and you’ll be taken care of there,’” she said. “So the person goes next door, which is a crisis pregnancy center, and they are never told they are not at Planned Parenthood.”
The problem has escalated to such a degree that when a patient is late for an appointment at one health center, “the front desk just presumes they have been lured next door and that is why they are delayed,” Leahy said.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warns patients about various “misleading practices” used by some anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Those include asserting false health risks of abortion, attempting to delay abortion care, overestimating gestational age to a point beyond legal abortion limits and showing “disturbing visuals or performing ultrasounds to emotionally manipulate and shame pregnant people under the guise of informing or diagnosing them.”
Peter Breen, vice president and head of litigation at the conservative Chicago nonprofit law firm the Thomas More Society, said the bill violates the First Amendment rights of “sidewalk counselors,” advocates who approach patients outside abortion clinics in an attempt to dissuade them from terminating pregnancies.
“The attack on sidewalk counseling — actually trying to regulate the speech of people standing on a public sidewalk advocating against abortion — that is unique,” he said. “That is something that you don’t see for the most part elsewhere. Here, you have a real attempt to stop citizens from expressing themselves on a public sidewalk, as they see fit.”
Leahy said pregnancy centers would continue to be free to provide support and free items like diapers to their patrons under the measure, so long as these organizations don’t behave dishonestly.
“I think we have to be very clear that your First Amendment rights are not unlimited,” she said. “A business shouldn’t be able to lie to its customers, commit fraud or be deceptive. That’s what we’re talking about.”
Beyond the First Amendment argument, Republicans and anti-abortion groups have raised questions about a lack of official documentation of deceptive practices.
GOP state Rep. Adam Niemerg, of downstate Dieterich, said during the House debate that a public records request was made to the attorney general’s office “over a month ago for the last 10 years of these supposed reports and complaints against pregnancy help centers.”
“The results of that FOIA request showed that there were actually zero complaints filed with the attorney general’s office in the last 10 years for violations of the deceptive business practices act by Illinois ... pregnancy centers.”
Susan Barrett, the executive director of Aid for Women, a center with several Illinois locations including one in the Loop, said she is not aware of deceptive practices of the sort described in testimony to legislators being employed at Aid for Women.
“I mean sometimes people make mistakes but we’re very clear even on the phone about who we are and what services we provide,” Barrett said.
If a woman is solely interested in abortion care, Barrett said they are told, “We do not provide or refer for abortions.”
The bill amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act by applying the existing language to the abortion industry. It does not apply to health care professionals licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, a hospital licensed under the University of Illinois and its affiliates or a hospital licensed under the University of Illinois Hospital Act or its affiliates.
Breen, a former Republican state representative who said the Thomas More Society intends to challenge the measure in court if it is signed into law, argued that abortion access is unlike other businesses that are referenced in the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act.
“It’s one thing to say that a company is misstating the benefits of a product it wishes to sell you. Or that someone trying to provide you something for money is trying to deceive you,” he said. “It’s a very different thing if an entity that doesn’t provide an abortion — is against abortion — and you would hold them to a higher standard in terms of their speech about abortion than an entity that is actually trying to provide you, sell you an abortion and may even make a profit off that procedure.”
Haas expressed concern that the exemptions mean “other clinics will truly not be held by these deceptive practice acts that are included” in the bill.
But in her closing remarks during the House floor debate, state Rep. Terra Costa Howard, a Glen Ellyn Democrat, said limited services pregnancy centers working in good faith should have no reason to be concerned if the bill becomes law.
“If you’re not lying, what do you have to worry about?” she said.
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed from Springfield.
