Illinois says Catholic hospitals won’t have to promote suicide as federal lawsuit plays out

Some Catholic hospitals and several other religious objectors in Illinois will not have to promote the state’s assisted suicide regime while a lawsuit challenging the policy plays out in federal court.

Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki had earlier in August brought the lawsuit against the state in U.S. district court alongside a Lutheran care home and several Christian doctors. The suit argues that the Illinois “End-of-Life Options” law requires doctors to participate in helping patients kill themselves even if the doctors conscientiously object to doing so.

On Aug. 21, the district court said the state would be restrained from enforcing the suicide rules against the objectors while the lawsuit continues through the federal court system. The Thomas More Society, which is representing the plaintiffs in the suit, announced the order in a press release on Aug. 24.

Peter Breen, the head of litigation at the Catholic legal group, described the order as “a critical first victory” for the religious objectors in the case.

Dr. Mary Keen Kirchoff, one of the doctors participating in the suit, said in the press release that the federal order “means I can go back to focusing on…