Mike Quigley, Cook County Commissioner, 10th District

County pols say abortion rules will cost

Daily Southtown

October 11, 2006

By Jonathan Lipman

Cook County officials say a recent state court ruling requiring parental notification for all girls seeking to get an abortion will result in a large, unfunded mandate on the financially strapped Cook County government.

The rules issued by the Illinois Supreme Court ruling say that underage girls who wish to avoid parental notification can seek a court waiver.

Circuit Court Clerk Dorothy Brown said the county court system isn't set up to handle the influx of cases that could result.

"We were not consulted by the Illinois Supreme Court," said Brown, who is running for mayor of Chicago. "This mandate ... never considered the steps our court system would need to take."

Brown said she could not guess how many such cases would come through the system but said it still would be expensive because the court would need to be ready even if it was just a few cases.

The court waivers are meant to give pregnant teens a way to avoid notifying their parents. Implementation of the Supreme Court's rules are on hold pending a related federal court ruling.

Brown said the Supreme Court's rules on issuing those waivers requires a process that is both fast -- a ruling is supposed to be delivered within 48 hours of a teen's request -- and confidential, and her court has no system like that in place.

County Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) said the court also would need to have social workers and counselors in place in the Daley Center lobby for any teen who walked in looking for help.

Cook County Board President Bobbie Steele said the cost was something "we won't be able to endure."

Abortion opponent Paul Caprio, head of Family PAC, said he thinks county officials are trying to use the money issue as a smokescreen to hide their own views supporting abortion rights and their own failures in managing county costs.

"Their responsibility is to implement the law, and that's the law," Caprio said. "Virtually every week of the year, the state of Illinois is imposing requirements on Cook County. ... This is laughable."

Abortion rights advocate Terry Cosgrove with Personal PAC said he believe the court could see thousands of requests for notification waivers every year because teen girls from across the Midwest come to Chicago seeking abortions.

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