The GOP Governor Will Pay a Price for Taxpayer-Funded Abortion in Illinois
by Mary Hallan FioRito October 4, 2017
4:00 AM
Breaking promises, Bruce Rauner signed a bill wildly out of step with the states voters. If youre from Illinois, youre accustomed to, and therefore not surprised by, politicians making questionable judgment calls.
There were the attempts by the convicted and now imprisoned former governor Rod Blagojevich to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama. More recently, Senator Richard Durbin stunned observers with his religiously bigoted questioning of federal appellate-court nominee Amy Barrett, grilling the respected Notre Dame law professor and mother of seven on the exact nature and extent of her Catholic faith. Are you an orthodox Catholic? he asked, stricken, it seemed, at the very thought that a Catholic who genuinely embodies her faith would sit on the federal bench.
But last week, Republican governor Bruce Rauner took an action so shocking in its duplicity and so out of step with the views of Illinois voters that many political watchers say it has likely ended his career in electoral politics.
Last week Rauner signed HB 40, a bill sponsored by Democrats in the Illinois legislature. In doing so, he created a sad bit of history: Rauner became the first U.S. governor to initiate publicly funded abortions for all state employees and for all Medicaid recipients.
Whats more, he approved the measure after explicitly assuring the GOP caucus, religious leaders, and a host of pro-family and pro-life organizations that he would veto it.
Time for tar and feathers.