By NIKOEL HYTREK
Capitol News Illinois
nhytrek@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — A Republican lawmaker who introduced a bill to outlaw abortion in Illinois has resigned from his GOP leadership position in the Illinois Senate after conversations with top Republicans.
Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, on Feb. 5, introduced a fetal personhood bill that would define a fertilized human egg as a legal “person” and grant it constitutional protections. It would also open the door to first-degree murder charges for abortions.
The only exceptions are for accidental deaths that happen because of “life-saving procedures on a pregnant woman” and miscarriage. Rape, incest and in vitro fertilization, a process in which fertilized eggs are frozen and sometimes discarded, are not exempt.
“The important part of this bill is deterrence,” Anderson said at a Tuesday news conference. “We are outlawing abortion. There’s nobody up here that wants to put women in jail.”
Anderson also refiled a bill to reinstate the death penalty for first-degree murder and other crimes. He said he’s introduced it several times over the years.
Neither bill has Republican cosponsors, but Anderson said he’s had “constant prayer” with colleagues and he hopes to add cosponsors.
Republican leader upset
Senate Republican Leader John Curran said the bill is a “no” for the Republican caucus.
“I don’t support his proposal, no other Republican legislator supports his proposal, House or Senate,” he said. “It’s an extreme proposal. I do not view it as a pro-life proposal, I view it as an anti-woman proposal about punishment.”
Curran also removed Anderson as minority spokesperson on the Senate executive and assignments committees, though he remains a member on the Executive Committee.
Curran said he talked to Anderson about leadership’s expected duties and responsibilities to the whole Republican caucus.
Darren Bailey, a Republican candidate running for governor who has served in the Illinois House and Senate, released a statement calling for Anderson to pull the bill.
“When women and families are facing a crisis, they need understanding, support, and real help, not the threat of jail time,” he said in a statement. “I am pro-life, but I believe we also have to face reality. Approaches like this pull people away and make it harder to move Illinois forward.”
In his leadership resignation letter, Anderson said he was saddened by Republican disagreement on the issue.
“At this point, I am not willing to compromise or set aside what I believe to be true regarding the rights and protection of our unborn neighbors, even where some within our caucus may disagree or view the issue differently,” Anderson wrote.
“We’re asking for equal protection under the law for our unborn neighbors,” he added at Tuesday’s news conference. “That is all.”
He was joined at his news conference by Arizona pastor Jeff Durbin, who describes himself as an abortion “abolitionist” and runs an organization called End Abortion Now. The organization promotes bills like the one Anderson introduced.
Anderson said he’s been thinking about the bill for more than a year and working with Durbin and his organization.
Durbin at the news conference compared abortion to slavery and the Holocaust.
“It is time for the Christian church to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the Word of God in this issue to once and for all, like the abolitionists in the past, to say: ‘No more,’” Durbin said.
Fetal personhood bills
Fetal personhood laws and proposals have become increasingly common in Republican-led states since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, and they take many forms.
According to Pregnancy Justice, an organization that provides criminal defense to people who’ve had abortions, 24 states have fetal personhood language in their abortion laws and 17 states have “fetal rights” established by law or a judge’s decision.
Indiana and Iowa both have introduced potential legislation similar to Anderson’s bill, but it has not passed. Both states have strict abortion bans, and on Tuesday Iowa Republicans dropped efforts to further outlaw abortion.
Iowa Republicans in 2024 declined to move a fetal personhood bill forward because of concerns about the effect on in vitro fertilization.
Illinois has multiple state laws and programs supporting access to abortion, including a law that classifies abortion as a form of health care like any other procedure. The state also partners with providers to ensure access to both routine and complex abortion care.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
