IL Law Prohibits Cops From Tracking Abortion Seekers With Technology

ILLINOIS —Police departments across Illinois will not be able to use license plate readers to track out-of-state women coming to Illinois for abortion services, according to a law that will go into effect in January.

The General Assembly passed the bill earlier this summer which prevents police officers from using automatic license plate readers specifically for the purposes of identifying those seeking abortions. Once signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, the bill would make Illinois the first state to limit the use of the technology.

No other state specifically prohibits license plate readers from being used to track or penalize individuals seeking abortion care or from criminalizing a person’s immigration status.

“No one seeking abortion care in Illinois should be harassed in any fashion, and I’m committed to enabling individuals to pursue and obtain the lawful healthcare they need without government interference,” Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias said earlier this summer.

“License plate readers are an important tool for law enforcement — especially when apprehending suspects in violent crimes or recovering stolen vehicles in carjackings — but we need to regulate these cameras so they aren’t abused for surveillance, tracking the data of innocent people or criminalizing lawful behavior.

"This legislation sets common-sense standards and protocols to ensure that license plate data is used properly.”

Illinois state officials said that they expected to see a spike in out-of-state women coming to the state after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer. The state had already been experiencing high volumes of women coming to Illinois for abortion services, namely from neighboring states where abortion is now illegal after the high court’s decision last year.

Illinois officials said after the Supreme Court decision that they expect to see an increase of between 20,000 to 30,000 new out-of-state patients coming to Illinois, where abortion will remain legal, Illinois state officials — including Pritzker have said.

In 2020, 9,600 women came to Illinois from out of state to have an abortion performed, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Of those women, 1,180 were under the age of 18 while 88 were under the age of 15.

Operated by private companies, the license plate readers are used in every state by most metropolitan police departments to scan license plates and provide the time and location of vehicles in real-time. The technology used in the readers allows police to read thousands of license plates per minute from cameras placed on roadways, streetlights, and squad cars, the Illinois Secretary of State office said.

Illinois, unlike more than 15 other states, currently has no regulations on how vehicle license plate data is shared, which can potentially violate the rights of individuals and could jeopardize their safety.

“People should not have to travel to a state like Illinois to receive essential health care such as abortion or gender-affirming care,” Jennifer Welch, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Illinois said earlier this summer “However, in our post-Roe reality, more and more health care refugees are forced to flee their home states and they shouldn’t have the added fear they are being tracked by their license plate.”

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, concerns have surfaced over the use of license plate readers to track people accessing abortion in states, state officials said. The state of Texas passed a law that offers a $10,000 cash “bounty” to anyone who succeeds in suing someone who has helped someone get an abortion.

In Illinois, the use of that data is currently unregulated, officials said. It puts innocent people in jeopardy of being prosecuted in other states for obtaining services that are legal in Illinois. Without regulation, it is impossible to know who is sharing this information or how this information is being used.

The legislation still allows law enforcement to use ALPR technology for investigating forcible felonies, motor vehicle theft, and missing person alerts, but it protects a person’s right to choose and prevents attempts to criminalize a person’s immigration status.

“This legislation reaffirms our state’s commitment to protecting access to a person’s reproductive healthcare in the state of Illinois,” Illinois State Rep. Ann Williams said earlier this summer. “(House Bill) 3326, which is supported by Planned Parenthood, will protect people who are simply seeking healthcare from targeted harassment and criminal prosecution.”