Abortion advocates urge additional reproductive health support from Illinois

(Capitol News Illinois) Illinois abortion advocates are urging lawmakers to do more to protect reproductive healthcare as the legislative session moves into its final days and the federal landscape keeps shifting.

The push comes after a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling blocked a lower court decision that temporarily prohibited the use of telehealth for abortion care.

“Although today’s order is a relief in the short term, we know that this case is not over,” Megan Jeyifo, executive director of Chicago Abortion Fund, said in a statement. “These attacks and attempts at sowing disinformation and confusion will continue, and the Illinois abortion access ecosystem remains strong and ready to support abortion-seekers.”

In early May, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling restricting the ability of anyone in the country to receive drugs like mifepristone through the mail until the makers of the drug appealed to the Supreme Court.

The high court’s order allows women seeking abortions to continue obtaining mifepristone at pharmacies or through the mail, without an in-person doctor’s visit.

There have been challenges to the sending of abortion medications through the mail since the Federal Drug Administration in 2023 changed the rules to allow it. People are increasingly seeking abortions through telehealth because of restrictions where they live, lack of access to a clinic or personal preference.

Jeyifo told Capitol News Illinois the Chicago Abortion Fund is closely watching the case because restricted access to mifepristone, the most targeted of the two abortion medication drugs, could increase the number of people seeking travel assistance from the organization to be able to get the medication in person.

“Chicago Abortion Fund, as Illinois’ statewide fund, operates up and down the state and really all around the Midwest,” she said. “We partner with every single clinic — independent clinics, Planned Parenthoods, hospital-based providers — to get people to the care they need by any means necessary.”

The abortion fund helps people pay for travel, meals, childcare, accommodations and supplies. Abortion-seekers can call a hotline, communicate their need, and the abortion fund works with them.

Illinois is a national hub for abortion care, providing it not only for Illinoisans but also for nearly a quarter of the people who have had to leave their home states for abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that researches abortion policy.

Activity in the legislature

Abortion advocates are calling on Illinois to further protect abortion access with measures like House Bill 5295, an initiative from the governor’s office that would segregate a patient’s digital medical records for abortion-related services and treatment and prohibit sharing them without a patient’s consent.

Sen. Celina Villanueva, D-Chicago, said the bill is about protecting people from retaliation if they travel to Illinois to have lawful abortions.

The bill passed the House 73-34 in April, on party lines, and advanced through a Senate committee on Wednesday on party lines.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate passed Senate Bill 3341, which would allow minors to consent to birth control services without the need for a parent or other person’s consent. It still has to pass the House.

In April, the House passed House Bill 5408, which would allow people with limited or no insurance to get financial assistance for abortion care in Illinois. It hasn’t been heard in the Senate.

“I think a lot of people think that we’ve already sort of solved the problem here in Illinois, and they don’t really realize the scope of how much (demand) we’re still seeing — not just out-of-state patients, but people in Illinois who are still having difficulties accessing care and who need the support of CAF and who need the support of CARLA (Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access) and organizations like that,” Olivia Kuncio, communications manager for CAF, said.

CARLA was established by Illinois in 2023 as a collaboration between state agencies, the Chicago Abortion Fund and four hospitals that helps people who need hospital-based care. The state also requires private insurance and Medicaid to cover abortion care. Illinois established a new public-private partnership early this year called the Prairie State Access Fund, which is managed by the Michael Reese Health Trust and will raise money to cover out-of-state patients that state programs don’t cover.

No state money went to the fund’s launch, though the state worked with the Michael Resse Health Trust to create it, and state agencies will coordinate with the fund to provide information about demand and clinic strain.

“We want to see those investments continue and be sustained,” Jeyifo said. “We don’t want to get to a place where we’re still very much in this public health crisis, and we’re like, ‘OK, we checked the box, we got this for one year, and now we can move on.’ We are going to be in this space for a while.”

Planned Parenthood of Illinois is also ready to handle any potential changes to abortion access.

“We want to be clear, Planned Parenthood of Illinois (PPIL) patients continue to have access to the full spectrum of sexual and reproductive healthcare, including medication abortion with mifepristone, both at health centers across the state and through telehealth,” Adrienne White-Faines, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois, said in an emailed statement.

“The back and forth in the courts is confusing to patients, but PPIL remains committed to serve as a trusted point of access placing our patients’ needs first,” the statement continued.

(Reporting by Nikoel Hytrek and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR), Capitol News Illinois)

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

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