Good law trumps ideology

The top story on the front page of the Chicago Tribune today reveals a surprise to people who know Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to be a vocal advocate of abortion. She did the right thing on the parental notification law.

I’m not sure why the Trib put the headline “Abortion law called legal” on a story about a law that assures protection the pro-life movement wants for young women. It’s an attention-grabber, though.

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said Friday that a long-dormant state law that prohibits minors from obtaining an abortion without notifying a parent is constitutional and should be enforced.

The General Assembly passed the notification law in 1995, but the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois won a federal court order that has blocked it from taking effect for 12 years.

In court papers filed Friday, Madigan asked the federal court in Chicago to dissolve the long-standing court order and, in a statement, said she had little other choice.

“It is my duty to uphold the Constitution and to defend the laws of this state if they are constitutional,” Madigan said in the statement. “At this point, 44 states have parental involvement laws, and courts have upheld many parental notice laws that are similar to the [Illinois] act.”

Given that upholding the Constitution and defending state laws hasn’t stopped some other legislators and even judges from making the choice to distort or re-rewrite them out of personal ideology, I applaud Madigan’s action in this case and give her credit for honesty and responsibility.

In the court filing, Madigan agreed with abortion opponents who said that any constitutional defect in the law was cured in September when the Illinois Supreme Court issued key rules governing how minors can seek a waiver of the notification requirement in special circumstances.

Good for Madigan. And good for the young women and their families who will be protected and cared for by this law.