Pro-life advocates from across the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois kicked off the annual Life Advocacy Day April 6 at the Capitol on the positive note that a House bill that would have allowed pharmacists the ability to prescribe birth control pills failed resoundingly in committee the previous day.
Zach Wichmann, director of government relations for the Catholic Conference of Illinois (CCI) said the bill could have even included some drugs that, in CCI’s opinion, cause abortions, typically very early in pregnancy. He also distributed a fact sheet about another piece of legislation known as the Ultrasound Opportunity Act (HB 5022). Although Wichmann acknowledged that the bill stood little chance of being enacted this session, he asked participants to discuss it with their legislators.
“For you to come here and give voice to what is so important to you is a very important thing and very helpful to us, and I’m happy you’re willing to do it,” said Wichmann.
Rep. Tim Butler of Springfield told the gathering that he would sign on that day as co-sponsor of the Ultrasound Opportunity Act. “I am solidly pro-life ... whether its abortion, assisted suicide or for me, all the way to the death penalty ... the spectrum of life from the beginning to the end,” said Butler.
Wichmann gave advocates a crash course on how to maximize the limited time they would have to speak with their legislator. Bishop Thomas John Paprocki brought up the very visible gaffe committed recently by presidential candidate Donald Trump who stumbled for an answer to a question regarding abortion that he was clearly not prepared to answer. The bishop contended Trump fell victim to the “trick” question of MSNBC host Chris Matthews when he said that a woman who undergoes an abortion should be jailed. Trump later backtracked on his initial response, but his misstatement had already been widely reported.
Bishop Paprocki said that illustrateed what often befalls those in the pro-life movement where answers to questions and sometimes trick quesions of policy and conscience intersect. “That’s [jailing a women who had an abortion] not our agenda, we’re not promoting that,” said Bishop Paprocki. “What we are supporting is to stop abortions ... we have a great deal of compassion for women who are faced with this decision as well as women who have made that decision ... the goal is to make our culture such in this country that first of all that woman would not seek to have abortions but that the means for those that are promoting this as an industry like Planned Parenthood and others that are in this for profit that we take this profit motive away from them.”
The diocesan Office for Pro-Life Activities and Special Ministries coordinated the annual Life Advocacy Day which brought dozens of pro-life believers to the Capitol. Particularly large contingents from the Quincy, Effingham and Springfield deaneries were represented.