Reproductive and Gender Affirming Care in Illinois
State Representative Kelly Cassidy of Illinois’ 14th district shared the ground breaking work of the Illinois Legislature, much of which she has led:
Illinois has worked hard for many years to protect access to Reproductive and Gender Affirming Care. Illinois began preparing for the fall of Roe long before the Dobbs Decision, and that work is why we’re able to be a haven for patients here and across the country.
From HB40 during the Rauner administration that repealed the state’s “trigger law” that would have automatically outlawed abortion if Roe was repealed, to the Reproductive Health Act and the repeal of the Parental Notice of Abortion Act in the first year of the Pritzker Administration, and the passage of the Patient and Provider Protection Act in early 2023, we laid the foundation to be able to provide as much protection as we can, for as many people as we can, for as long as we can – and we continue to react to new attacks and threats with legislative action every year since. Inherent in that statement is an admission of the limitations of our powers. Nothing is going to stop a federal subpoena or protect against a federal ban. We’re literally making a safety net in real time.
When the administration began attacking medication abortion, we ensured that Illinois’ patients can continue to access medication abortion by ensuring that off-label access to the drugs is enshrined in our laws. This year, we’ve taken important steps to protecting medical records from out of state investigations by passing HB5295 the Reproductive Health Records Privacy Act sponsored by Rep. Mary Beth Canty, ensured that youth in care who are placed out of state for any reason have a voice in their placement and requires DCFS to have a plan in place for youth to have access to reproductive or gender affirming care if they’re placed in a state with bans by passing HB4966, the SECURE act that I sponsored, and protected access to hormone therapies by requiring insurers in Illinois to cover six month estrogen prescriptions and removing testosterone from the Prescription Monitoring Program. Our office website hosts a Know Your Rights page that we are constantly updating with information as issues develop around immigration, reproductive rights, and gender affirming care https://www.repcassidy.com/know-your-rights
Illinois continues to be a destination for patients from all over the country, with recent reports showing that 25% of all patients forced to travel for care are coming to Illinois. Illinois saw 32,000 out of state patients last year, nearly double the next closest state at 18,000 in North Carolina. We are also the most likely state for those who need care later in pregnancy due to our investment in the CARLA network (Complex Abortion Regional Line for Access), a collaboration between the Chicago Abortion Fund and the state’s Department of Public Health that assists with scheduling high-risk hospital appointments, arranging pre-operative testing, and helping with payment, travel, and childcare logistics.
We continue to hear folks ask about whether we should amend the state’s constitution to enshrine abortion rights. That’s a complicated question. We’ve seen states around us pass amendments and still struggle to put laws in place to provide access to care, so it’s important to note that it’s not a magic bullet. In addition, the campaigns for these are hugely expensive and usually involve multiple national groups who are understandably focused on states with bans or restrictions in place, making a campaign here a lower priority. And finally, as noted above, nothing we can do on the state level would protect access if a federal law banning abortion were passed.
Our work isn’t done. We still have hospitals responding to threats from the federal government by restricting or cutting off care. Our Attorney General has been a literal litigation machine, staving off the worst impacts at every turn. We have to use every tool at our disposal, the courts, the legislature, the ballot, and the caring hearts of folks like you who came together tonight to provide a little comfort to a patient in need. Thank you again for all you do.
We are so grateful for the work of our State Legislators for protecting reproductive health. Dr. Maya Or, a renowned Reproductive Health physician in Illinois, presented us with the bleak picture of what is happening in states without laws to protect reproductive health. Beyond the bans that are causing death to women who cannot get adequate care, physicians are leaving those states. With the cuts to health care that we will be cut deeper after the midterm elections, medical care for women’s health is becoming obsolete in rural areas with the closing of clinics and hospitals.
Once the legislative session begins in January, we will ask you to support more legislation to protect reproductive rights. In the meantime, we will have more tools to reach our neighbors in other states to make a difference. Working together, we can make a difference.