Illinois Democrats push to further expand abortion, gender care access

Illinois Democrats push to further expand abortion, gender care access

By HANNAH MEISEL
For Capitol News Illinois
news@capitolnewsillinois.com

SPRINGFIELD – Six months after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years of precedent providing for legal abortion, Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly have their eye on once again expanding access to reproductive health care as the state solidifies its position as a “haven” for abortion in the largely red Midwest.

But some advocates in Illinois are looking beyond strengthening the health care system around reproductive rights in Illinois and are also seeking to establish protections for those seeking and performing gender-affirming care – a practice some Republican-led states have already begun clamping down on in addition to restricting abortion access.

“Make no mistake that the attacks on gender-affirming care come from the same place as the attacks on reproductive health care,” Planned Parenthood of Illinois vice president Brigid Leahy told a panel of lawmakers this week. “They simply do not trust people to make their own health care decisions.”

Under legislation passed in the Illinois House late Thursday, insurance plans regulated by the state would be required to cover – at no cost to the patient – abortion medications typically used up to about 10 weeks of pregnancy, in addition to gender-affirming medications like hormones. The measure also requires the same coverage of medications aimed at preventing HIV infections like PrEP and PEP.

However, the state doesn’t have the power to regulate most employer-provided insurance plans in the private sector, exempting those plans from the required coverage.

Still, the bill would apply to thousands of individuals who buy their own health insurance or are public employees in Illinois, although bill sponsor Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, maintained the extra cost to taxpayers would be negligible, as many insurers already cover those medications at no cost.

Republicans balked at the idea that insurance companies would be required to pay for abortion medication even if there is no proof of pregnancy, meaning that people could hold onto the shelf-stable pills until a need arises.

“Your insurance provider may not be required to cover insulin, but would be required to cover an abortion (medication)?” State. Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Morrisonville, asked Cassidy during a hearing this week.

“If you would like to sponsor a bill requiring coverage of insulin, I would be the chief co-sponsor, representative,” Cassidy responded.

 

Pressure for Senate action

After the bill’s passage in the House late Thursday night, the Senate briefly convened on Friday before leaving for the weekend. Democratic leadership in that chamber has been non-committal on taking up the House’s proposal, instead introducing its own more stripped-down version that doesn’t include references to gender-affirming care.

The legislation shares center stage with a measure that would ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons in Illinois during lawmakers’ “lame duck” session in Springfield ahead of a new General Assembly term that begins Wednesday. 

In a short statement Friday, Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, said only that the assault weapons legislation and abortion expansion bill are “critically important issues” and that his chamber is “giving these proposals an extensive review and careful evaluation” in order to enact “the most effective legislation possible.”

Advocates spent Friday pressuring Senate leadership to pass Cassidy’s bill. During debate Thursday evening, Cassidy called certain Republicans “bullies” as they debated her, using rhetoric she said was offensive and harmful to the trans community.

Outgoing State Rep. Tom Morrison, R-Palatine, said he was worried about current trans youth someday regretting their decision to seek gender-affirming care, particularly if they choose to go through surgery, which Morrison decried as even more readily available in Illinois “because now it’s being subsidized by everyone.”

“What we’ve also seen over the years is an enormous uptick in attacks and abuse – some of it led by you – against trans youth,” Cassidy told Morrison. “And I’m very proud to say that I stand with trans youth. I protect trans youth against bullies like you, sir.”

The bill doesn’t include any minimum age for youth seeking gender-affirming care, but Cassidy said the general “standard of care” includes parents in health care decisions. Bourne, however, balked at the reliance on an industry’s self-guidance, and pointed out that Democrats had repealed Illinois’ Parental Notice of Abortion Act in late 2021, meaning teens could seek an abortion without their parent or guardian’s involvement or even knowing.

 

Expanding abortion access through shield laws, tweaks to licensure

Other provisions in the bill would offer both legal protections and licensure opportunities to health care professionals from other states that have banned or restricted abortions and gender-affirming care. 

For example, the legislation establishes “shield laws” similar to ones in Massachusetts, California and a handful of other East Coast states, protecting information about abortions and gender-affirming care from being subject to subpoenas and orders for witness testimony issued from courts in other states. 

And if a medical professional – anyone from a physician to a genetic counselor to a therapist – had his or her license revoked in another state solely for performing abortions or trans-related care, he or she would be able to practice in Illinois, pending an investigation by Illinois’ professional licensure oversight authority.

Illinois would also grant temporary two-year licenses to doctors, physician assistants and nurse practitioners in order to meet the growing need for abortion-related services in the state. The action is similar to one the state took in 2020 to address COVID-19-related hospital staff shortages.

Illinois had already been seeing steady increases from out-of-state abortion-seekers even prior to Roe v. Wade’s reversal in June, but reproductive health advocates have been planning a build-out of services for years, anticipating the need for more providers. In order to help grow that workforce, the legislation would allow for nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform non-surgical “vacuum aspiration” abortions – the most common type of in-clinic abortion procedure, which typically doesn’t require general anesthesia.

Another move designed to expand the capacity of Illinois’ reproductive health care system would allow birth centers to provide reproductive health services beyond childbirth and caring for newborns.

 

Plan B vending machines, birth control-dispensing pharmacists

Also included in the legislation is a requirement that both public and private universities in Illinois, in addition to community colleges, maintain at least one vending machine on each of its campuses that sells emergency contraception, also known as the Plan B pill, for no more than $40.

The bill would also expand a 2021 state law that allows pharmacists to dispense birth control under what’s known as a “standing order,” rather than monthly prescriptions from a doctor. Along with Arizona, New Hampshire, Utah and West Virginia, Illinois already allows for these standing orders from either physicians or a state health authority to govern birth control dispensary from specially trained pharmacists, but under the legislation passed by the House, the state’s Department of Public Health could issue that standing order, rather than local health departments.

 

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.

Leave a Comment





Local News

Sheri Cannataro, of Cannataro Farms, demonstrates the gear she wears to extract honey from a bee hive for visitors who stopped by to see her products at the Hills Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Expo Saturday at Conrady Junior High School in Hickory Hills. (Photos by Joe Boyle)

Residents warm up to Hills Chamber Business Expo

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Joe Boyle Spring has arrived but winter continues to leave its calling card. However, that did not prevent the Hills Chamber of Commerce from holding its 10th annual Business and Community Expo Saturday at Conrady Junior High School in Hickory Hills. While the temperatures were frigid and windy outside, the spirit inside…

Palos Park Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters speaks about zoning codes at the March 25 council meeting. (Photo by Jeff Vorva)

Palos Park to tweak outdated village zoning codes

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva The village of Palos Park has no grand plan to change the village landscape. But officials want to modernize some of its zoning codes. “The village has not comprehensively updated its development regulations since 1960,” Mayor Nicole Milovich-Walters said at the March 25 village council meeting. “Due to this, there…

Ridgeland sd122 logo

SD122 psychologist resigns over Islamophobic posts

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Nuha Abdessalam A psychologist for Ridgeland School District 122 has resigned after hundreds of parents demanded she be fired for social media posts that were pro-Israeli and anti-Palestinian. District Supt. Joseph Matise announced at a schoolboard meeting last week that Dr. Laurie Hoke had resigned. “Dr. Hoke will no longer be working…

CRR_NH

Clear-Ridge Reporter and NewsHound March 27, 2024

Spread the love

Spread the love

Mary Stanek

Will the month of March leave like a lion?

Spread the love

Spread the love. By Mary Stanek Your correspondent in Archer Heights and West Elsdon 3808 W. 57th Place •  (773) 517-7796 . The days are getting longer and slightly warmer. But my prediction of a few weeks ago–March is certainly not leaving like a lamb–may prove to be correct. A sure sign of spring in…

Peggy Zabicki

Robin sighting a sign of new beginnings

Spread the love

Spread the love. By Peggy Zabicki Your correspondent in West Lawn 3633 W. 60th Place •  (773) 504-9327 . I saw a robin the other day. This was the first sighting of the season for me. I remember my mom saying that the first robin of spring is a promise of new beginnings. May it be so. Is…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Thome sweet Thome: Nazareth baseball defeats Hall of Famer Jim Thome’s alma mater

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent The Nazareth baseball team took a road trip to the middle of Illinois and improved its record to 7-0 on March 23 by beating Limestone, 6-0. Limestone is the alma mater of former White Sox player and Baseball Hall of Fame member Jim Thome, who is an assistant coach…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Chicago Catholic League greats headed to Hall of Fame

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent A handful of area stars will be inducted into the Chicago Catholic League Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The list features Kevin Bracken (St. Laurence, wrestling), Kevin Carberry (St. Rita, football), Matt Macievic (De La Salle, cross county and track), Mike McGrew (Mount Carmel, football), Dan Nicholson (Brother Rice,…

SRP-IMAGE-Logo

Fire II tops Chicago City, advances to to second round of Hunt Open Cup

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent The Chicago Fire II picked up a late invitation to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and beat Chicago City, 6-0, on March 20 in front of an announced crowd of 810 at SeatGeek Stadium. Defender Giovanni Granda and midfielder Vitaliy Hlyut each made their professional debut and scored…

Julia Bianchi heads back on defense shortly after delivering a first-half goal for the Chicago Red Stars on March 23 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview. Photo by Jeff Vorva

Red Stars top Seattle, open season with two wins for first time in franchise history

Spread the love

Spread the loveBy Jeff Vorva Correspondent Last year’s last-place finish notwithstanding, the Chicago Red Stars have had a pretty rich history of success. The franchise has seven NWSL playoff appearances and has finished runner-up twice (2019, 2021), and prior to 2022 had finished no lower than fourth in the league ‘s regular season standings for…

Neighbors

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.