CHICAGO — Chicago’s Catholic archbishop, two orders of Catholic nuns and other plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to block the state from enforcing a controversial Illinois law set to take effect next week that would let doctors prescribe medication to help terminally ill patients end their lives.

It’s the latest legal challenge to Illinois’ End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act, which Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker signed into law in December after the Catholic Church emerged as one of its most vocal opponents during debate in Springfield. In June, separate suits were filed on the same day seeking to halt medical-aid-in-dying laws in Illinois and New York.

The Illinois law lets a terminally ill patient — someone given up to six months to live by a doctor — request and ingest life-ending prescription medication. Its passage and the governor’s signature capped a yearslong debate at the state Capitol over whether Illinois would allow the practice.

Thursday’s lawsuit, filed a little more than a week before the law is expected to take effect on Sept. 12, names Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Little Sisters of the Poor Chicago Province and a downstate pharmacist among its plaintiffs. It names three state officials as defendants: Sameer Vohra, director of the Illinois Department of Public Health; Mario Treto Jr., secretary of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation; and Terry Prince, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.

“At the very least, Illinois ought to heed federal law, which bans the use of federal healthcare funds for assisted suicide, and forbids Illinois from discriminating against those who, like the Sisters, refuse to participate in assisted suicide,” the plaintiffs said in the suit. “Instead, Illinois has put the Sisters and other Catholics providing health care in the Archdiocese to a stark choice: either abandon their religious beliefs regarding the sanctity of life or face significant fines and penalties.”

Spokespeople for Vohra and Prince declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. A spokesperson for Treto could not immediately be reached for comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, a proponent of the law but not a party to the lawsuit, called it “sad to see the willful misreading” of the act.

“Medical aid in dying is voluntary for health care professionals, health care entities and terminally ill Illinoisans. The law does not force anyone to provide or choose this end-of-life option; no one is required to provide the care; it provides only that people be informed of their options (and when applicable) respect a patient’s request to transfer care without undue delay,” ACLU spokesperson Edwin Yohnka said in a statement Thursday. “Instead of recognizing that reality, the lawsuit seeks to impose the values of the plaintiffs on all Illinoisans — without any recognition or understanding for the desires and life circumstances of someone facing a terminal diagnosis.

“We all have a right to religious liberty and religious viewpoints. But our deeply held religious views (do) not give any of us a veto over the views and wishes of others,” he continued.

The suit argues the law conflicts with a state statute prohibiting “offering to help someone commit suicide,” and cites case law barring the use of federal funds for end-of-life options. It also points to studies it says show suicide rates rise overall in states that legalize medical aid in dying, particularly among older adults, and contends veterans are especially at risk. The suit notes that the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and the state Department of Public Health work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on suicide-prevention training and other mental health services.

“By passing EOLOA (the End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act) and giving the state Department of (Veterans) Affairs authority to regulate under the new law, Illinois has taken a drastically different tack, and attempted to force unwilling providers to participate,” the lawsuit alleges. “Illinois now requires health care providers to counsel their terminally ill patients about assisted suicide — even when those patients are already at a high risk of suicide because of their veteran status.”

The suit also invokes the First Amendment’s “protected sphere of church autonomy,” which it says bars government from concerning itself with the governance of religious institutions, “such as how the Catholic Church chooses to implement its beliefs on the sanctity of human life and the decision of religious communities to form themselves around those same principles.” It argues that restricting a fundamental religious-freedom protection is constitutional only if the state is furthering “an interest of the highest order” through “the least restrictive means” — a standard the suit contends the defendants cannot meet — and that protections against compelled speech bar the government from forcing Catholic doctors and nurses to speak positively about end-of-life options.

The suit also cites freedom-of-association protections, which it says “allow the Catholic Church, its various communities, and the patients they serve, to organize themselves into (like-minded) communities with the same values and beliefs — the mission of which is to live faithfully according to those beliefs, for however long or short a time.”

Beyond the First Amendment claims, the lawsuit contends the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Affordable Care Act and other federal provisions.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers are asking the court to declare the law — along with its interaction with the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act, which shields healthcare professionals from liability for refusing treatment on religious grounds — unconstitutional. They are also seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctions to block enforcement.

Illinois joined at least 10 other states and Washington, D.C., in permitting medical aid in dying. In signing the law, Pritzker said it would help terminally ill patients “avoid unnecessary pain and suffering at the end of their lives.”

Opponents, including the Catholic Church, argue it’s immoral to give someone the option of taking their own life. Pope Leo XIV last year spoke out against the measure, saying he had discussed it with Pritzker while it awaited the governor’s signature and that he was “very disappointed” to later learn Pritzker signed it into law.

Under the law, an eligible patient — at least 18 and an Illinois resident — may orally request a prescription from their attending physician, a request that must be documented. The patient must then submit a written request, witnessed by two people who attest, “to the best of their knowledge,” that the patient is acting voluntarily and is mentally sound; the law lists limits on who may serve as a witness.

A second oral request must follow five days after the first. When the patient makes that second request, the attending physician must offer the patient a chance to rescind it and must provide “sufficient information” about all appropriate end-of-life care options, including comfort care, hospice care, palliative care and pain control, along with the foreseeable risks and benefits of each.

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