Your voices and prayers are needed during this year’s Illinois March for Life. We march on April 17, 2024, around the state capitol in Springfield to remind our state legislators that human life should be respected from conception to natural death. 

 

Marches in state capitols across the United States grew in significance when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that abortion is not a federal constitutional right. This decision threw the legality of abortion into the hands of the states. Advocacy for preborn babies and their mothers at the state level became essential. 

 

We will be marching in a few weeks, however, not simply for the preborn. Last month, Senate Bill 3499 (SB3499) was introduced into the Illinois General Assembly. It would authorize “a qualified patient with a terminal disease to request that a physician prescribe aid-in-dying medication that will allow the patient to end the patient’s life in a peaceful manner.”

 

Suddenly, the reality looms of Illinoisans being able to end our lives for reasons defined by the state. If this legislation becomes law, Illinois would be joining eight states and the District of Columbia, and a handful of countries, where physician assisted suicide is legal. 

 

The dangers of legalizing assisted suicide are numerous. Because of the expense of life saving treatment, patients living in areas with legal physician assisted suicide have seen insurance companies deny their lifesaving treatments and instead approve coverage for inexpensive life-ending drugs. The definition of a “terminal illness” often evolves to include illnesses that are terminal with or without treatment, including treatable chronic conditions like diabetes. In fact, history has shown that states that legalize assisted suicide eventually abandon, through subsequent legislation, initial “safeguards,” such as requiring psychiatric evaluation of patients. 

 

Physician assisted suicide is morally unacceptable. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded” (CCC 2277). 

 

The Life and Family Evangelization Office, through the Catholic Conference of Illinois, is also monitoring other legislation that could impact our life and dignity from womb to tomb. Several bills are trying to expand acceptance of gender dysphoria, including expanding the definition of an “abused child” to include a child whose parent or guardian denies the child access to gender-affirming services (House Bill 4876). 

 

Your voices and prayers are needed to fight for the life and dignity of all in our state. We still have a handful of seats available on our diocesan Illinois March for Life charter bus picking up pilgrims in Huntley and in St. Charles before heading to Springfield. Our bus through the city of Rockford is full! Email us at [email protected] for information on the open seats for the March. Registration closes next week. Using this same email address, you can ask to be added to our Life & Dignity Flocknote list to stay up to date on these issues. 

 

Please continue to flood heaven with your prayers that our culture becomes one of life, respecting human life at all stages. 

 

Physician assisted suicide is suicide. Call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for 24/7, free, and confidential help if you are in distress or if you need resources for you or your loved ones.