Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Friday signed into law sweeping reproductive health care legislation to protect out-of-state abortion seekers, adding Illinois to the list of states that have placed legal reinforcements around the procedure in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In addition to shielding reproductive and gender-affirming health care patients and providers from legal action originating across state lines, the act will also protect the Illinois licenses of health care providers licensed in multiple states who provide treatment legal in Illinois but may cost them their license in a state where it’s not. The measure also prevents insurers from charging more for out-of-network care when in-network providers object to treatment on moral grounds.
“Here in Illinois, we know that reproductive care is health care,” Pritzker said. “A medical decision should be made between a patient and their health care provider.”
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Chicago Democratic Rep. Kelly Cassidy led a legislative working group last year to determine how to bolster abortion access following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe, the 50-year-old ruling that established a federal right to the procedure. In the Senate, the legislation was carried by Democratic Sen. Celina Villanueva of Chicago.
“This legislation consolidates Illinois as an island that protects reproductive and gender-affirming rights in the Midwest,” Villaneuva said. “It places our state at the forefront of a nation for granting people the freedom to make their life decisions.”
The bill was approved by lawmakers during the final hours of the lame-duck session on Tuesday before the new General Assembly was sworn in Wednesday, when the process would have started anew.
Chicago Rep. Kelly Cassidy, who sponsored the proposal in the House of Representatives, said the new law ensures that “Illinois will continue to serve the thousands of people traveling to our state every month to receive abortions and other reproductive and gender-affirming health care, which they can no longer access in their home states.”
Mary Kate Zander, head of anti-abortion organization Illinois Right to Life, said the governor's "pro-abortion legacy is, in practice, harming women and depriving unborn children of an opportunity at life. This may be politically expedient for Governor Pritzker today, but it won’t age well.”
Planned Parenthood of Illinois, which has treated more out-of-state abortion patients than ever since the Dobbs ruling, applauded the legislation.
“Now more than ever we need to continue to fight for equitable access to essential reproductive health care like abortion and gender affirming care because all people should have the freedom to make medical decisions that are best for their bodies, their lives and their families,” said PPIL president Jennifer Welch. ___
O'Connor reported from Springfield, Ill.
