New laws aim to shield providers of abortion meds, ban ticketing in
schools
[August 23, 2025]
By Peter HancockandBen Szalinski
Gov. JB Pritzker signed the final two bills from the spring session
Friday, giving his approval to more than 430 bills approved by lawmakers
this year.
The final bills signed Friday are designed to improve access to abortion
medication even if the federal government revokes permission for a
certain drug. The governor signed a bill earlier in the week prohibiting
students from receiving municipal tickets for disciplinary infractions.
The General Assembly sent 436 bills to the governor’s desk this year,
with Pritzker signing all but three of them. Pritzker issued a pair of
vetoes to Senate Bill 246, which would have allowed nonprofits to
participate in the state’s investment pool, and House Bill 2682, a
crisis assistance measure that had duplicative language in a bill
Pritzker previously signed.
Pritzker also issued one amendatory veto to House Bill 2568 because a
portion of the bill was written into the wrong section of state law.
Lawmakers can decide whether or not to accept the change when they
reconvene in October.
Abortion medication access
Illinois will allow health care professionals to prescribe certain
medications over the next decade even if the federal government revokes
approval for a drug under House Bill 3637.
The bill stipulates that any medication that had U.S. Food and Drug
Administration approval prior to 2025 and remains approved by the World
Health Organization will remain legally accessible in Illinois even if
the FDA revokes approval of the drug. The law would remain in effect
through 2034. It was primarily aimed at protecting providers of abortion
mediation.
The bill expands “shield law” protections to all Illinois health care
workers to protect them from prosecution in other states or disciplinary
action in Illinois for providing health care that is legal in Illinois
but may not be legal in other places.
“As an anti-woman, anti-science, authoritarian administration invades
our privacy, Illinois is holding the line and we are fighting back,”
Pritzker said at a news conference in Champaign.
The Trump administration has planned to review the FDA’s authorization
of mifepristone, a leading abortion pill.
General Assembly Republican opposed the bill, arguing the state should
not ignore the FDA’s guidance about medications.
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Gov. JB Pritzker signs a bill in Springfield on Thursday, Aug. 14,
2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry Nowicki)
Pritzker also signed House Bill 3709, an initiative of a group of
University of Illinois students that requires Illinois colleges and
universities to provide students access to contraception and abortion
medications at campus pharmacies and health care centers beginning this
school year.
“These services will now become more easily available from a source that
young women can trust,” Pritzker said.
No municipal fines for students
Municipalities in Illinois may no longer issue fines, fees, tickets or
citations to students as a form of school-based discipline under a new
law signed Wednesday.
Senate Bill 1519, sponsored by Sen. Karina Villa, D-West Chicago, took
effect immediately and is intended to close a loophole in a 2015 law,
which prohibited schools from issuing fines for disciplinary
infractions.
A 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune found that
schools were getting around that law by referring students to local law
enforcement for offenses such as truancy, vaping, fights or other
infractions. The investigation also found Black and Latino students were
fined at disproportionate rates.
The law does not apply to delinquent or criminal behavior. It also does
not apply to traffic, boating, or fish and game laws.
“Our schools should be places of learning and growth — not entry points
into the justice system,” Villa said in a statement. “When we treat
student behavior with fines and tickets, we fail to address the real
issues and risk derailing a young person’s future.”
The new law also requires school districts that employ school resource
officers to have a memorandum of understanding with their local law
enforcement agency to ensure SROs are properly trained and do not use
fines or tickets for disciplinary infractions.
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by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. |
