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Judge temporarily blocks Illinois assisted suicide law
A federal judge has placed a temporary injunction against an assisted suicide law in Illinois.
Late last year, Illinois passed the "Sanitary Food Preparation Bill," which included an amendment hidden within the bill's text legalizing assisted suicide.
The law was scheduled to take effect on September 12.
Several lawsuits were filed in an attempt to block the law, including one from disability advocates.
A federal judge declined the lawsuit from disability advocates, allowing it to take effect.
However, a second judge ruled in favor of a religious coalition, and placed a temporary injunction against the law.
On December 12, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1950, the "Sanitary Food Preparation Bill," into law. It included an amendment hidden within the text of the legislation which legalized assisted suicide, after previous efforts had failed.
The law is scheduled to take effect on September 12, though several lawsuits have been filed against it.
The first was filed in June by the group End Assisted Suicide, a coalition of disability and patients rights advocates, which claimed it put the lives and well-being of people with disabilities at risk.
“Assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets,” Matt Vallière, president/executive director of plaintiff organization Institute for Patients’ Rights, said . “These legal actions are about affirming that every person has inestimable value and dignity, regardless of age, disability, or prognosis, and ensuring that no one is treated as disposable under the law.”
The second was filed on August 11 by a coalition of religious plaintiffs, including Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the Lutheran Care Center, and four physicians. The group is represented by the Thomas More Society, and claimed the law violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and religion.
“Illinois is forcing faith-based hospitals, nuns, and doctors into supporting the state’s assisted suicide regime," Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at TMS, said. "The law commands Catholic hospitals, religious nursing homes, and faithful doctors to promote suicide’s alleged ‘benefits,’ refer patients to suicide drug prescribers, and then lie on death certificates to cover it up. This immoral scheme flagrantly violates religious liberty and free speech rights, and we intend to stop it.”
One district judge refused to block the law; another blocked it.
U.S. District Judge John J. Tharpe refused to put a preliminary injunction in place, allowing the law to take effect as planned, saying there was nothing to indicate it would put disabled lives at risk. He wrote:
“The Act exempts healthcare professionals from any duty to provide aid-in-dying care, states that a healthcare provider ‘may choose not to engage in aid-in-dying care,’ and provides that ‘only willing healthcare professionals shall provide aid-in-dying care in accordance with the Act. With this amount of discretion afforded to doctors, (one of the plaintiffs) cannot establish an immediate, imminent risk that all doctors will start inviting disabled patients to consider medical aid in dying.”
He also said that the lead plaintiff, Ebony Payne, a Chicago resident who is paralyzed from the neck down and suffers from severe asthma, had not shown that she had standing to challenge the law, and that her fears were mere speculation.
However, U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama responded to the lawsuit from the religious coalition by placing a temporary injunction on the law. The state now cannot proceed with allowing the legislation to take effect.
Cardinal Cupich said in a press release:
"I welcome this decision of the court that stays the enforcement of the provisions of the Illinois End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (EOLOA) that require healthcare providers, against their conscience, to participate in assisted suicide by compelling them to inform patients of the ‘benefits’ of suicide and their ‘right’ to kill themselves, and also help them qualify for lethal drugs, or pass them along to someone willing to help them obtain those drugs.
These obligations violate core constitutional protections of freedom of speech and religion. The law with these provisions must be struck down permanently. To be clear, the Church’s objection to this statute is not an attempt to impose Catholic teaching on non-Catholics; it is an effort to stop the State from compelling Catholic health care providers to violate their conscience.”
Valderrama did not say in his ruling how long the restraining order will remain in place, though it grants a temporary victory against the law.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
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·Judge temporarily blocks Illinois assisted suicide law
A federal judge has placed a temporary injunction against an assisted suicide law in Illinois.
Late last year, Illinois passed the "Sanitary Food Preparation Bill," which included an amendment hidden within the bill's text legalizing assisted suicide.
The law was scheduled to take effect on September 12.
Several lawsuits were filed in an attempt to block the law, including one from disability advocates.
A federal judge declined the lawsuit from disability advocates, allowing it to take effect.
However, a second judge ruled in favor of a religious coalition, and placed a temporary injunction against the law.
On December 12, 2025, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 1950, the "Sanitary Food Preparation Bill," into law. It included an amendment hidden within the text of the legislation which legalized assisted suicide, after previous efforts had failed.
The law is scheduled to take effect on September 12, though several lawsuits have been filed against it.
The first was filed in June by the group End Assisted Suicide, a coalition of disability and patients rights advocates, which claimed it put the lives and well-being of people with disabilities at risk.
“Assisted suicide laws in New York and Illinois create a separate and unequal system in which people with life-threatening disabilities are offered death instead of the support programs everyone else gets,” Matt Vallière, president/executive director of plaintiff organization Institute for Patients’ Rights, said . “These legal actions are about affirming that every person has inestimable value and dignity, regardless of age, disability, or prognosis, and ensuring that no one is treated as disposable under the law.”
The second was filed on August 11 by a coalition of religious plaintiffs, including Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the Lutheran Care Center, and four physicians. The group is represented by the Thomas More Society, and claimed the law violates the constitutional right to freedom of speech and religion.
“Illinois is forcing faith-based hospitals, nuns, and doctors into supporting the state’s assisted suicide regime," Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at TMS, said. "The law commands Catholic hospitals, religious nursing homes, and faithful doctors to promote suicide’s alleged ‘benefits,’ refer patients to suicide drug prescribers, and then lie on death certificates to cover it up. This immoral scheme flagrantly violates religious liberty and free speech rights, and we intend to stop it.”
One district judge refused to block the law; another blocked it.
U.S. District Judge John J. Tharpe refused to put a preliminary injunction in place, allowing the law to take effect as planned, saying there was nothing to indicate it would put disabled lives at risk. He wrote:
“The Act exempts healthcare professionals from any duty to provide aid-in-dying care, states that a healthcare provider ‘may choose not to engage in aid-in-dying care,’ and provides that ‘only willing healthcare professionals shall provide aid-in-dying care in accordance with the Act. With this amount of discretion afforded to doctors, (one of the plaintiffs) cannot establish an immediate, imminent risk that all doctors will start inviting disabled patients to consider medical aid in dying.”
He also said that the lead plaintiff, Ebony Payne, a Chicago resident who is paralyzed from the neck down and suffers from severe asthma, had not shown that she had standing to challenge the law, and that her fears were mere speculation.
However, U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama responded to the lawsuit from the religious coalition by placing a temporary injunction on the law. The state now cannot proceed with allowing the legislation to take effect.
Cardinal Cupich said in a press release:
"I welcome this decision of the court that stays the enforcement of the provisions of the Illinois End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act (EOLOA) that require healthcare providers, against their conscience, to participate in assisted suicide by compelling them to inform patients of the ‘benefits’ of suicide and their ‘right’ to kill themselves, and also help them qualify for lethal drugs, or pass them along to someone willing to help them obtain those drugs.
These obligations violate core constitutional protections of freedom of speech and religion. The law with these provisions must be struck down permanently. To be clear, the Church’s objection to this statute is not an attempt to impose Catholic teaching on non-Catholics; it is an effort to stop the State from compelling Catholic health care providers to violate their conscience.”
Valderrama did not say in his ruling how long the restraining order will remain in place, though it grants a temporary victory against the law.
Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.
Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.
Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.
Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!
Cassy Cooke
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Bridget Sielicki
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Cassy Cooke
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·International
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