Article By Alex Schadenberg
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed assisted suicide bill SB 9 into law. The Illinois assisted suicide law is scheduled to go into effect on September 12, 2026.
A group of Illinois physicians, a Catholic bishop and a faith-based nursing home filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block Illinois’ assisted suicide law before it goes into effect.
John Clark reported for mystateline.com on August 12 that:
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, argues that the state’s End-of-Life Options Act violates constitutional protections for free speech, religious freedom and due process by requiring physicians and health care organizations that oppose assisted suicide to participate in the process against their beliefs.
Clark reports that the Illinois lawsuit is based on preventing assisted suicide and protecting freedom of speech, conscience rights and religious freedoms:
However, the new lawsuit argues that objecting physicians and institutions are still required to discuss what the law describes as end-of-life options, provide information or referrals to willing providers, and comply with other requirements that conflict with their religious beliefs and medical ethics.
The plaintiffs contend those provisions force them to endorse or facilitate actions they believe are morally wrong.
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According to the complaint, the physicians object to informing patients about what the law characterizes as the benefits of medical aid in dying, referring patients to providers willing to participate, documenting certain requests in medical records, and complying with provisions governing death certificates.
Clark states that the lawsuit is seeking an injunction against the assisted suicide law.
The suit asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction and permanent injunction blocking enforcement of those provisions before the law’s Sept. 12 effective date. Plaintiffs also seek declarations that portions of the law violate the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act and certain federal health care statutes.
A similar lawsuit was filed in New York to prevent the implementation of their assisted suicide law. On July 31, 2026; The Beckett Fund reported that a temporary order was obtained preventing the state of New York from forcing Catholic Sisters and Catholic healthcare from participating in the assisted suicide law while the federal lawsuit by Catholic healthcare proceeds in the court.
The lawsuit instituted by the Beckett Fund has temporarily protected Catholic Healthcare from being forced to participate in assisted suicide but it has not achieved an injunction to prevent the New York assisted suicide from going into effect.
On June 11, we reported that The Institute for Patients’ Rights joined two federal lawsuits, one in New York and one in Illinois, with a coalition of national and state-based disability and patient advocacy organizations. For both states, Not Dead Yet, United Spinal Association, and the National Council on Independent Living, are organizational plaintiffs.
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