Illinois governor signs law requiring abortion pills at state college campuses

A series of bills protecting abortion have been signed into law in Illinois, further cementing its status as one of the most pro-abortion states in the country.

Key Takeaways:

• Billionaire Governor JB Pritzker signed a series of bills into law recently, including one that will keep the abortion pill legal in the state of Illinois if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finds them unsafe.

• He signed another bill into law requiring public colleges and universities to make contraception and abortion pills available on campus.

• Illinois is one of the most pro-abortion states in the country, with abortions permitted through "viability" (and for vague "health" reasons thereafter) and with no licensing requirements for abortion facilities.

The Details:

JB Pritzker, a longtime abortion advocate and founder of "Think Big America" — a 501(c)4 which promotes pro-abortion ballot initiatives across the country) — recently signed into law a series of bills, several of which involve further protecting abortion in an already-extreme pro-abortion state.

One, House Bill 3637, passed both houses of the state legislature earlier this summer. Under the bill, the abortion pill regimen will continue to be legal in Illinois so long as it is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) even if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revokes its approval in the United States. Last week, Pritzker signed that bill into law, ensuring abortion pills remain available in Illinois no matter what.

“As an anti-woman, anti-science, authoritarian administration invades our privacy, Illinois is holding the line and we are fighting back,” he said in a press conference.

Yet one recent analysis found through examining insurance data regarding “serious adverse events” (complications) resulting from mifepristone (the abortion pill) that there is a 22 times higher rate than what is currently reported by the FDA, with nearly 11% of women experiencing these events. These complications included hemorrhaging, infection, sepsis, transfusions, hospitalization, and more. Another recent study, conducted in Ireland between January 2019 and December 2022, found that 12% of women who underwent chemical abortions experienced complications severe enough to require a visit to the emergency room, with 16% suffering incomplete abortions. Still another study showed that women were severely unprepared for how painful the chemical abortion process would be.

The True Story Behind the Abortion Pill

Another bill signed by Pritzker was House Bill 3709, making abortion pills available on public college campuses. The initial text of the bill included a requirement that the college or university have a referral agreement in place with a “tertiary care facility with obstetrics and gynecological services in the event of complication” — but in a state where abortion is essentially unregulated, that requirement unsurprisingly failed to make it into the final version of the bill.

This means that young women in college dorms will experience the pain and trauma of chemical abortion alone, without the supervision of a physician, potentially passing the remains of their preborn children into the toilet — and in the event of complications, they'll have to find a way to get to the nearest emergency room.

Colleges and universities are not equipped to handle complications — which is why the director of the McKinley Student Health Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign originally refused to stock abortion pills.

“Unfortunately, currently, McKinley does not have the expertise in-house to provide abortion services,” said Awais Vaid, Executive Health Director of the center, also pointing out that abortion was easily accessible off-campus.

Now, however, public colleges and universities will no longer have the choice to opt out; they will be required to commit chemical abortions on campus.

Go Deeper:

Illinois, and Pritzker, have been heavily invested in promoting abortion, with a Democratic supermajority calling all the shots.

The state has virtually no restrictions on abortion, though it states it is legal through "viability." Thanks to the broad language in the legislation, women can undergo abortions at virtually any time in pregnancy, for any reason, so long as a doctor is willing to say it is "medically necessary."

This vagueness is a green light for unlimited abortion, as abortionists have openly said that just being pregnant, and not wanting to be, makes abortion a medical necessity. There is at least one abortion facility committing abortions in the third trimester — advertising up until 34 weeks, well after when a preborn child can survive outside of the womb — in Chicago.

Abortion facilities in the state of Illinois are also not required to be licensed, and all insurance plans in the state, whether public or private, must pay for abortion. The state also protects abortionists, regardless of the injuries they cause. One notorious recent example is that of Keith Reisinger-Kindle, who perforated a woman's uterus and left half the baby's body inside of her. Despite the severity of the injury, he continues to commit abortions in the state.

The Bottom Line:

Illinois lawmakers and its governor have made Illinois women less safe by removing restrictions regarding abortion and forcing state universities and colleges to distribute it on campuses.