Chances are dimming that the Illinois legislature will gather before the November election for a special session to expand abortion rights and access in the state.
The prospect of state lawmakers returning to Springfield before the November election for a special session to expand protections for reproductive health care in Illinois appear to be dimming, even as abortion providers and advocates push Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker to come to their aid.
Now, despite positioning himself as a national leader on abortion rights, Pritzker is deferring to the legislature on when the time is right to address issues such as allowing nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform abortions and expanding legal protections for patients and health care workers.“The legislature has to do its work, and it is hard at work,” Pritzker said Tuesday during a campaign event at the Loop headquarters of Planned Parenthood of Illinois.
Democrats hold majorities of 73-45 in the House and 41-18 in the Senate, but haven’t always been unified in moves to increase abortion access. When Democrats voted last year to repeal the state’s parental notification law, for example, the measure cleared each chamber with just two votes to spare. Pritzker spoke to reporters Tuesday after meeting privately with the heads of the Illinois and St. Louis regional chapters of Planned Parenthood, along with Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
While former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation in 2017 repealing the state’s so-called trigger law, which would have outlawed abortion when Roe was overturned, and Pritzker in 2019 signed another measure enshrining access to the procedure as a “fundamental right” in state law, advocates say there is still more that can be done.
“Illinois has yet to take meaningful action like this that can address major post-Roe capacity challenges, especially for downstate providers,” the group said.Pritzker and other leaders have indicated their support for such a change but say it needs to be done through legislation rather than executive order or administrative rule.
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