Illinois is one of a handful of wildly abortion-friendly U.S. states. And, as of Tuesday, October 26th, the state’s legislature has taken yet another step to make it even worse. Local news reported:

“The Illinois Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a law requiring that parents or guardians be notified when girls younger than 18 are seeking an abortion.”

Illinois is very much out of touch with both popular opinion about abortion (which favors limits) as well as its neighboring states. Parental notification and consent laws for abortion are common. In fact, 37 states require some level of parental involvement in the abortions sought by girls younger than 18 years old. 27 states require parental consent, while ten require only notification. In short, under these laws, parental consent requires a minor’s parents to basically give permission to abort. Parental notification means a parent must be simply made aware.

Parental notification and consent for abortion laws are a safeguard for minors in abusive situations. The most pressing implication of repealing this law is that it allows extra cover for statutory rapists, sex traffickers, and other abusers to continue harming women. A survivor of sex trafficking, Brooke Bello, spoke to an Illinois coalition that supports maintaining Parental Notification:

“I was raped at 11 years old. I started being trafficked as a young teen. Our traffickers made us get abortions. Had my parent been notified…my mother would have known what city I was in. She would have known what street I possibly would have been near. She could have contacted law enforcement and then the mitigation of the issues I suffered my entire life.”

Sponsors of the repeal attempt make vague arguments like, ‘It’s an obstacle to abortion access.’ But where’s the concern for the actual well-being of women? After all, we know abortion facilities cannot be expected to aid women in abusive situations. The plain and simple truth is that abortion businesses are not incentivized in any way to abide by rules, regulations, or laws that affect abortion sales.

In too many cases, pro-life laws exist yet are not enforced and therefore useless. But, in the case of the Illinois Parental Notification law, it has saved girls and their children. We know it is actually enforced, as Illinois Right to Life said of the law: “The parental notification of abortion law went into effect in Illinois in August of 2013. With the Law in affect for just under 5 months, abortions on minor girls dropped 20%. Abortions on minor girls 14 years old and younger dropped 30.1%.”

Here’s the kicker: it’s possible for a minor to have an abortion without parental notification or consent in every U.S. state due to a judicial bypass provision. This provision, which had somewhat good intentions, is also a common loophole taken advantage of by the abortion industry. This legal act involves petitioning a judge to approve a minor’s abortion in cases where the parents are not around or have sound judgement to give consent.

Abortion facilities have no problem circumventing this in order to sell abortions to minors. They have pro-abortion pet judges who hand out illegitimate bypasses to young girls who simply don’t want to involve their parents. Reprotection has called an abortion facility, posing as a minor, and the staff quickly explained how they get around parental consent and promptly got the abortion appointment scheduled.

So… why does Illinois need to repeal their parental notification law, which stands to help real girls who are in real trouble, if there’s already a provision for the exception?

Abortion-friendly politicians and lobbyists only care about one thing: expanding and generally worshipping abortion. Literally the only entity that stands to benefit from this effort are abortion facilities, which would be able to make more money committing the abortions paid for by rapists and sex traffickers.

Abortion facilities nationwide have lengthy track records of failing to report abuse (even in cases where they were legally required to). Reprotection addressed this in a post here. Illinois’s attempt to remove one of the only extra layers of protection they have for girls is sick. We will stand against it in any way we can.