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Pritzker Signs Sweeping Abortion Expansion Into Law

AP Photo/Amr Alfiky
/
Associated Press

PEORIA -- Gov. J.B. Pritzker today signed a bill that he said makes Illinois the most progressive state in the nation on women's reproductive rights.

 

“The Reproductive Health Act ensures that women’s rights in Illinois do not hinge on the fate of Roe v. Wade, or the whims of an increasingly conservative Supreme Court. In this state, women will always have the right to reproductive health care," said Pritzker at a Wednesday press conference in Chicago. 

 

Among other things, the law requires private health plans to cover abortions and establishes a right to an abortion in Illinois statute.

 

State Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria) is hailing Governor J.B. Pritzker’s signature of a bill expanding abortion rights in Illinois.

 

“While you see states around the country taking away a woman’s right to choose what is best for her body, we were enshrining that, no, not here in Illinois are we going to go back into back alleys and going through back doors for women to be able to access reproductive health care," said Gordon-Booth.

 

 

Republicans, pro-life groups, and Illinois Catholic bishops strongly oppose the bill.

 

“It’s a tale as old as time. Illinois politicians are more concerned with pandering to cash-wielding progressives and Chicago media outlets than they are with representing the people of our state. Pritzker doesn’t care what the people of Illinois want, nor does he care that abortion takes a human life," said Mary Beth Knorr, a spokesperson for Illinois Right to Life. 

 

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Catholic Diocese of Springfield declared he will deny communion to House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats, for their votes on the bill. 

 

The law goes into effect immediately.