The Illinois House of Representatives today approved House Bill 40 on a vote of 62 to 55. The legislation, sponsored by Representative Sara Feigenholtz, removes a dangerous “trigger” provision in the Illinois abortion law and eliminates discriminatory provisions from Illinois law that deny insurance coverage for abortion to women enrolled in Medicaid and State Employee Health Insurance.
The following can be attributed to Lorie Chaiten, Director of the ACLU of Illinois Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project:
This positive vote stands in sharp contrast to the national wave of legislation aimed at denying women access to reproductive health care. Illinois lawmakers know it is best to trust women to make their own decisions about health care.
House Bill 40 is necessary to help ensure that every woman in Illinois can make her own health care decisions and have access to safe medical care, regardless of what happens in the Supreme Court or under the Trump administration.
By removing both the “trigger” language and the discriminatory provisions that restrict Medicaid and State Employee Health Insurance from current Illinois law, House Bill 40 advances critical efforts to ensure that all women in Illinois have coverage for a full range of reproductive health care, including abortion. When it comes to the most important decisions in life, such as whether to become a parent, it is vital that every woman in Illinois is able to consider all the options available to her, however little money she makes or however she is insured.
We thank Representative Sara Feigenholtz for her leadership in the House. We look forward to working with Senator Heather Steans in the Senate. Illinois women deserve this protection.
