North Cook News

As Illinois lawmakers ponder the fiscal year 2019 budget, the state representative out of the 54th District recently sent a letter to his GOP colleagues urging them to push the pro-life line in light of the state's Republican governor signing a controversial abortion bill last fall.

"I wanted to encourage members to think about how groundbreaking HB40 is, and that this is the first budget we'd be voting on with this funding included," Rep. Thomas Morrison (R-Palatine) told North Cook News. "The majority of the public isn't for funding of elective abortions, and neither should we include it in the budget. We shouldn't set the precedent."

In his letter to Republican lawmakers, addressed to "Dear Colleague" and in reference to "Appropriation including Elective Abortions," Morrison urged them not to be divisive over abortion appropriation in the budget. 

Illinois Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner

"Do we really want a floor debate between Republicans, opposing each other on the life issue, a core principle of our party?" Morrison asked in his letter.

"President Trump has gone out of his way to be publicly pro-life and do pro-life things, in line with the position of our core GOP supporters. If the Illinois House Republicans decided to cooperate with the appropriation of tens of millions of dollars for elective abortions, when we have an opportunity to stop it, then we're making ourselves complicit in funding taxpayer-funded abortions, tens of thousands annually. It would be devastatingly demoralizing for our base, from the grandmas who send us small checks and faithfully make voter calls for us, to the enthusiastic young people who rally their friends to knock on doors for us. Again, 87 percent of Republican voters are with us on this."

The main message Illinois Republican lawmakers should take from the letter is how strong they really are in the abortion debate, Morrison said. 

"I wanted them to think through the position of strength we have on this issue," he said. "The proponents of HB40 pushed the narrative that Roe v. Wade could be overturned and that elective abortions should remain legal in Illinois. They understated or disguised the controversial aspect of funding for these procedures.  They only had 62 votes, and we think they'd be hard-pressed to get to 60 'yes' votes if there was an up or down vote on the funding portion."

Morrison, who has represented the 54th state House District since he was first elected to the seat in 2010 and a recent recipient of the American Conservative Union Foundation's Award for Conservative Achievement for his 2017 voting record, is well known for his conservative leanings in Springfield. In March 2016, Morrison introduced a bill into the state House that would have required students in Illinois public school to use bathrooms that correspond with their birth sex.

The 54th House District is entirely within Cook County, and includes Arlington Heights and Rolling Meadows.

Morrison is being challenged in the November general elections for his seat by Democrat healthcare researcher and lesbian Maggie Trevor of Rolling Meadows. Both Morrison and Trevor were unopposed during the March primaries.

In his letter to lawmakers, Morrison urged them to remember the federal Hyde Amendment, which blocks federal Medicaid funding for abortions. 

"The late, great Henry Hyde's simple but effective move saved the lives of millions of children," Morrison wrote. "Until the Hyde Amendment went into effect in 1980, U.S. taxpayers paid for nearly a quarter of abortions. Since then his amendment has been enacted each budget year at the federal level, through Republican and Democrat presidencies and congresses. The Democrats alone passed HB40, and the Governor broke his promise and split our party in signing it. This is a historic opportunity for us to correct a great moral travesty. If the Democrats want to fund what they alone passed, we should do everything we can to force them to do it without our help."

Morrison told the North Cook News that he would like to see a vote on something like the Hyde Amendment in Illinois. 

"Ideally there should be an up or down vote on Hyde amendment-style language in this budget or in a BIMP," Morrison said. "At a minimum, the appropriations bills should be introduced separately so that we can vote up or down on the Medicaid and/or state group health insurance budget."

Rauner's decision to not kill HB 40 has caused a split among Conservative Illinois Republican and it's what hurtled House Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) into her strong run against Rauner during the Republican primary in March. 

Despite that division, Illinois' Republican lawmakers must stand united against funding for HB40 in the fiscal year 2019 budget or deal with it later, Morrison said during his North Cook News interview.

"We need to take the stand so that we don't set a bad precedent," he said. "That said, if we're unsuccessful for fiscal year 2019, we'll revisit the issue next year."