The Little Sisters of the Poor already had to fight Barack Obama all the way to the Supreme Court.
Now the nuns are fighting JB Pritzker's suicide law, and Illinois hospitals are choosing sides too.
A growing list of those hospitals just told the governor exactly where they stand.
Blessing Health and Two More Illinois Hospitals Opted Out of Assisted Suicide
Illinois' assisted suicide law took effect on September 12.
It lets hospitals and doctors decide whether to take part.
In west-central Illinois, Blessing Health System in Quincy answered first, and it didn't leave any wiggle room.
None of its "entities, providers, employees, or facilities will prescribe, dispense, facilitate, or otherwise participate in medical aid in dying," the system said.
Quincy Medical Group followed with five blunt words – "QMG has elected not to participate."
Then Jacksonville Memorial Health said it had "joined many other hospitals across the state in opting out."
But Memorial left a door open.
It says it will refer patients who ask to a doctor or group that will evaluate their request.
That's the trap built into Pritzker's law.
A hospital can keep the lethal drugs out of its building and still end up handing a dying patient a phone number.
Other hospitals, like McDonough District Hospital in Macomb, are still deciding.
The big systems moved even earlier – OSF HealthCare, Ascension, and Hospital Sisters Health System opted out in December 2025, and Advocate Health Care followed in July 2026.
OSF, a Catholic system, said it "will not participate in or support any form of physician-assisted suicide."
JB Pritzker Signed Deb's Law After It Was Slipped Into a Food Bill
Senate Bill 1950 started life as the "Sanitary Food Preparation Bill."
By the time it reached Pritzker's desk, an amendment had turned it into a law letting doctors prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients.
Pritzker signed it in December 2025.
Its supporters call it the End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, or "Deb's Law."
Little Sisters of the Poor Sued to Block the Illinois Assisted Suicide Law
If you have a parent in an Illinois nursing home, this law can reach their bedside.
That's why Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago joined the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm and the Little Sisters of the Poor in suing the state.
Their lawsuit says the law would force the sisters to raise suicide as an option with the elderly people in their care and let it happen inside their homes.
"Illinois cannot ask us to replace that promise with help ending their lives," said Mother Mary Rose Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters.
Becket President Mark Rienzi told the state to "stop trying to make Catholic nuns help patients kill themselves."
On September 11, the day before the law kicked in, U.S. District Judge Franklin Valderrama temporarily blocked the state from enforcing it against the nuns and the cardinal.
The order "brings real peace of mind to our Sisters, our residents, and their families," Heery said.
Springfield Bishop Thomas Paprocki, the Lutheran Care Center, and four doctors filed a separate suit with the Thomas More Society.
"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," said the society's Peter Breen.
Those court orders protect only the people who sued.
Everyone else is on their own.
Disability Advocates Warn Medical Aid in Dying Offers Death Instead of Care
The first lawsuit came in June from End Assisted Suicide, a coalition of disability and patients' rights advocates.
"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," said Matt Vallière of the Institute for Patients' Rights.
Barbara Wagner learned exactly what that means in 2008.
The Oregon woman had recurring lung cancer, and her state health plan refused to pay for the drug her doctor prescribed to extend her life.
The plan would cover palliative care, including assisted suicide.
"To say to someone, we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live, it's cruel," Wagner said.
In Canada, doctors ended 16,499 lives in 2024 – about one out of every 20 deaths in the country.
About half of those patients said they felt like a burden on their families.
Illinois Hospitals Drew the Line Pritzker Wouldn't
The people actually caring for Illinois' sick and dying are refusing to go along.
From Advocate in the Chicago area to Blessing in Quincy, hospitals said no, and the Little Sisters of the Poor went to federal court rather than betray a single resident.
Grandma deserves a doctor who fights for her life, not a governor who hands her a lethal prescription and calls it compassion.
Sources:
- Cassy Cooke, "Illinois Hospitals Are Opting Out of Assisted Suicide," Live Action News, September 25, 2026.
- Cassie Schoene, "More Local Hospitals Opt Out of IL Medical Aid in Dying Law," KHQA, September 23, 2026.
- Daniel Payne, "Cardinal Cupich, Catholic Religious Sisters Sue Illinois to Halt Assisted Suicide Law," National Catholic Register, September 3, 2026.
- Matt Lamb, "Major Illinois Hospital System Refuses to Participate in Assisted Suicide," LifeSiteNews, July 13, 2026.
- Calvin Freiburger, "Illinois Can't Force Nuns to Participate in Assisted Suicide for Now: Judge," LifeSiteNews, September 14, 2026.
- "Oregon Health Plan Covers Assisted Suicide, Not Drugs, for Cancer Patient," EWTN News, June 5, 2008.
- Talia Wise, "Canada Sets New Record, Killing 16,499 People by Euthanasia," CBN News, December 5, 2025.
