BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- The law mandates that public campuses with student health centers must offer abortion pills for free to students.
- Pro-life organizations and Republican lawmakers say it compromises student safety and prioritizes abortion over support for pregnant women.
- Similar laws are already in place in California, New York, and Massachusetts.
Public colleges and universities in Illinois will be required to offer abortion pills on campus under a new law that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed on Friday.
In a video on X, Pritzker said he was “very proud” to sign the legislation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, surrounded by students and abortion activists.
“I made a promise to the women of Illinois — as governor, I will ensure your medical decisions will be your own,” Pritzker said in the video. “Now, we continue fulfilling that promise.”
However, a state pro-life organization said the legislation will hurt students.
“This bill places the health and safety of young women at risk and turns institutions of higher learning into abortion facilities,” Illinois Right to Life responded in a statement to WCIA News.
The law, House Bill 3709, requires public institutions of higher education to provide access to contraception and medication abortions to students for free, if the campus has a student health center.
If the center includes a pharmacy, it must provide contraception and abortion pills to students, according to the bill. Institutions that do not have a pharmacy on campus will be required to provide students with “access to health care professionals” who can prescribe contraception and abortion pills off campus or through telehealth.
The law goes into effect immediately.
It came about through the work of pro-abortion student activists, The College Fix previously reported.
One of the students originally involved, Grace Hosey, now an alumna of UI, thanked the governor for helping abortion activists pass the law.
“It was a really cool experience to see that something so small that you and your friends do together at college can turn into an actual statewide law,” Hosey told The Daily Illini student newspaper.
However, the bill attracted criticism from some Republican lawmakers, including state Rep. Reagan Deering, R-Decatur, The Center Square reports.
“These bills work to promote and celebrate abortion rather than work to build up the services and support to help empower women through their pregnancy and even postpartum,” Deering said. “The Democrats need to worry less about Trump-proofing and more about serving those we were elected to represent.”
Its proponents care about “their radical policies,” not mothers in need, she said. Deering also expressed concern that young women will be given the abortion pills “without proper medical oversight.”
Typically, abortion pills are prescribed up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The abortion method involves taking a drug that blocks the pregnancy hormone progesterone and kills the unborn baby, and then a second drug a day later that induces contractions.
Other pro-life advocates also have spoken out against the bill.
Previously, a spokesperson for the Chicago-based Pro-Life Action League described the bill to The Fix as “insulting and infantilizing” to young women.
Matt Yonke told The Fix that the bill also appears to be focused on “propping up” Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the U.S.
Yonke said it’s “outrageous” that Illinois will force schools to expend resources so the “failing abortion giant” can “shore up their bottom line.”
California, New York, and Massachusetts have similar laws in place.
