SPRINGFIELD – Wednesday, State Rep. David McSweeney (R-Barrington) and Jerry Costello (D-Collinsville) introduced HR 620, a bi-partisan effort to stop Illinois taxpayers from paying for abortions and squelch the growing movement to effectively end the "Hyde Amendment."
"Governor Rauner needs to honor the commitment he made on April 14th to veto HB 40," McSweeney told Illinois Review Wednesday. "It's important that he keep his word."
McSweeney said taxpayers are already reeling from the legislature raising Illinois' state income tax by 32%. "It would be even worse if that tax hike goes toward paying for abortions many find offensive," he said.
The problem is that Governor Rauner has made commitments to both sides on what he would do with legislation that called for taxpayer funding of abortion. On a questionnaire in 2014, he told the abortion group Personal PAC he'd favor taxpayer funding for abortions while he told Republican lawmakers he would veto such a measure because it was "too divisive."
HB 40 would effectively end the long-standing Hyde Amendment set into effect by Illinois' late Congressional leader Henry Hyde, according to a letter sent from Illinois' delegation to the U.S. House. That's an effort pro-abortion groups are focused on, according to this Tweet posted by the ACLU a week ago:
So if Governor Rauner signs HB 40 into law, he would be a Republican governor that uses his elected office to promote a radical pro-abortion agenda.
That's what state reps. McSweeney and Costello want to block. While every Republican voted no on HB 40, only five Democrats – Reps. Dan Beiser, Jerry Costello, Jay Hoffman, Brad Phelps, and Sue Scherer voted against it.
The resolution wording to be posted Wednesday:
WHEREAS, in the 2017 spring session of the 100th General Assembly, both houses of the General Assembly considered, and with partisan votes passed, a bill – House Bill 40 – that was primarily drafted to expand state funding for abortions; and
WHEREAS, on April 14, 2017, Bruce Rauner, at a time when the Governor was in full awareness of HB 40 and its intended purpose, publicly pledged that the he would veto the bill; and
WHEREAS, Illinois is already one of the highest-taxed states in the United States, especially after the adoption of the recent 32% increase in the income tax rate, and it is not appropriate to expand state funding for abortions; therefore be it
RESOLVED, by the Illinois House of Representatives of the 100th General Assembly, that we call upon Governor Bruce Rauner to immediately honor his pledge to veto HB 40; and be it
RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be presented to Governor Bruce Rauner.
