Pritzker Signs Abortion Bill, Calls It 'A Giant Step Forward'

SPRINGFIELD, IL — Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday signed sweeping abortion rights legislation that repeals decades-old restrictions even as states across the U.S. impose increasingly strict abortion laws. The governor, who had been a vocal proponent of the bill, said the new law is evidence, at a time when other states are passing increasingly restrictive abortion regulations, that the state of Illinois trusts women.

"In a time when too many states across the nation are taking a step backward, Illinois is taking a giant step forward for women’s health," Pritzker said.

The bill, which contains the Reproductive Health Act, establishes abortion as a "fundamental right."

The bill repeals both the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act and the 1975 Illinois Abortion Law. The legislation replaces the 1975 act with a new law that would remove measures that call for spousal consent, waiting periods or criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortions.

In January, Pritzker vowed that Illinois would be the "most progressive" state when it comes to protecting women's reproductive rights. The bill passed late Friday states that a "fertilized egg, embryo or fetus does not have independent rights" and says that the state shall not "deny, restrict, interfere with, or discriminate against an individual's exercise of the fundamental rights in this act," and will not "prosecute, punish, or otherwise deprive any individual of the individual's rights for any act or failure to act during the individual's own pregnancy."

Sweeping Abortion Rights Bill Heads To Pritzker's Desk

Last month, Grayslake Democrat Sen. Melinda Bush told the Chicago Tribune she believes "there's a war against women's rights going on," adding, "We're not going back to coat hangers, we're not going back to dying. We're not going back. And I am proud to say Illinois is a beacon. For women's rights, for human rights."

But conservatives and the Catholic Conference of Illinois have condemned the legislation. The Catholic Conference called the bill a "collective moral failing" and claimed it "includes new provisions that render any regulation of abortion impossible, strip away standards for — and regulation of — clinics where abortions are performed, and mandate private insurance plans subject to Illinois' authority cover abortion."

In May, Downstate Republican Rep. Avery Bourne, who is pregnant, criticized the bill, saying it is "a massive expansion that will impact viable babies, and that is wrong."