Pritzker signs reproductive rights expansion
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[January 14, 2023]
By PETER HANCOCK
Capitol News Illinois
phancock@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker signed a bill into law Friday expanding
access to abortion and other reproductive health care services.
House Bill 4664, passed Tuesday during the General Assembly’s “lame
duck” session, came in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in
June overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and declaring that the
federal constitution does not protect a woman’s right to abortion.
That decision triggered the reinstatement of long-dormant laws in other
states that either banned or imposed severe restrictions on the
procedure and prompted other states to impose new restrictions,
resulting in a wave of patients from those states seeking services in
Illinois, where abortion remains legally protected.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has forced women, especially those most
marginalized, to flee their home states in search of safe health care,”
Pritzker said at a bill signing ceremony in Chicago. “Here in Illinois,
we know we have an obligation to support and protect reproductive
freedom for our residents, and those who seek safe haven. And we must
protect our doctors and nurses to the right to reproductive health care
that has been the law of the land in Illinois and across the nation,
really, for 50 years.”
The bill aims to address the increased demand for abortion services in
Illinois by expanding the list of providers qualified to perform the
procedure to include advanced practice registered nurses and physician
assistants when general anesthesia is not required. It also provides an
expedited process for health care providers licensed in other states to
obtain temporary licenses to practice in Illinois.
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Gov. JB Pritzker speaks Friday in
Chicago after signing a bill into law that expands access to
abortion and gender-affirming health care, and also gives legal
protections to health care providers who perform those services.
(Credit: Blueroomstream.com)
The bill also provides legal protections to health care providers who
are sanctioned in other states if those sanctions are based solely on
the fact that they performed a medical procedure that is legal in
Illinois. That includes abortion services as well as “gender-affirming”
treatments for transgender individuals.
It also guaranties that abortion medications, HIV prevention drugs known
as PEP and PrEP, and gender-affirming care will be covered by
state-regulated insurance plans at no extra cost to consumers and
requires local government employers to offer insurance plans that
provide coverage for these treatments, as well as for birth control.
“Last year when the Supreme Court took away our freedoms, when they
overturned Roe, Illinois immediately felt the impact as state after
state moved to ban or severely restrict abortion access,” Jennifer
Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Illinois, said during the
event. “Sometimes it looks like a race to the bottom in our neighbor
states. And those same states are hostile to the LGBT community,
restricting access to gender-affirming health care, equality, marriage
equality and many other rights.”
The new law takes effect immediately upon the governor’s signature.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news
service covering state government. It is distributed to more than 400
newspapers statewide, as well as hundreds of radio and TV stations. It
is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R.
McCormick Foundation.
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