The Chicago Sun-Times has written an article about an important reproductive rights issue, access for minor girls.

JUDICIAL BYPASS' | New attempt to stall notification law
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Legal Affairs Reporter

Abortion clinic staffers found none of several court clerks they called in collar counties were ready to handle girls seeking judges' permission for abortions.

"All credible evidence suggests that the Illinois courts are not so prepared," attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union argued in their latest attempt to block the parental notification law they have successfully stalled for 12 years.

U.S. District Judge David Coar must decide whether the courts are ready to handle minor girls seeking a "judicial bypass" of the rule that a parent must be notified of the abortion.

Cook County's court system, which is expected to handle more than half of all Illinois cases, has not put any procedures in place to handle the girls "due to staff reductions and limited resources," court Clerk Dorothy Brown wrote in an attachment to Thursday's filing by the ACLU.

Neither have the clerks in Will, Kane, Kendall and other counties, the filing says. There is no guarantee that the case be heard in-chambers instead of in open court.

Supporters of the law note that 38 other states, including all of those surrounding Illinois, already have found constitutional ways to make the law work.

But the law has an unusual history in Illinois: The state Legislature passed it in 1995. But the state Supreme Court refused to issue rules for the "judicial bypass."

So a federal judge put the law on ice until new justices led by Chief Justice Bob Thomas issued rules last year. Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked Coar to let the long-dormant law take effect. But the ACLU has sought to keep the law on ice.

"It is not enough for a bypass system to exist merely on paper or in concept," the ACLU argued Thursday.

The Chicago SunTimes Online: http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/391793,CST-NWS-abort18.article

Read more about this issue:

• Federal Judge Blocks Effort to Revive Dormant Parental Notification Law


• ACLU of Illinois Calls on House Committee to Protect Young Women's Health and Well Being


• ACLU Applauds Governor and Other Illinois' Constitutional Officers Public Support for House Bill 317