Illinois has agreed to follow a court order blocking state officials from enforcing the state’s assisted suicide law against Catholic plaintiffs while litigation over the measure continues.
In an order Friday, a federal judge barred leaders of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and the Illinois Department of Public Health from enforcing the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act and parts of the Health Care Right of Conscience Act against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, a Catholic pharmacist and groups of Roman Catholic nuns. The order was issued by Trump appointee Judge Franklin Valderrama of the U.S.
District Court for the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit arguing the laws violate their religious beliefs about the sanctity of human life, based on Catholic Church teaching. They objected to specific provisions of the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act that require healthcare providers to tell terminally ill patients about “the foreseeable risks and benefits” of all end-of-life options, including assisted suicide.
The legislation would also require providers who object on religious grounds to refer patients to a willing provider; and bar providers from trying to stop a “qualified patient” from “obtaining or self-administering suicide drugs.” The lawsuit contends that the laws also violate the Church Autonomy Doctrine and the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause, along with protections for freedom of speech and assembly and against compelled speech.
The plaintiffs also believe the laws violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act, Article II of the U.S. Constitution and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. They asked the court to bar the defendants from enforcing the laws against them, declare the laws unconstitutional and award nominal, compensatory, actual and punitive damages along with attorneys’ fees.