Illinois House approves new abortion protection

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois House took its first step Monday in passing legislation responding to proposed actions by the Trump administration.

The House voted 67-39 to advance House Bill 3637, which would put new protections in state law to safeguard health care licenses for providers who offer abortion care. It also guarantees continued access to abortion medication even if the medication’s approval is rescinded by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

“We know that Project 2025 has called for the revoking of the FDA approval for medication abortion drugs, and we cannot wait to react after the fact,” said state Rep. Dagmara Avelar, D-Romeoville.

Under the bill, if the FDA ends approval for a drug, health care providers in Illinois will be allowed to continue providing the medication so long as the World Health Organization recommends it. Democrats fear the Trump administration may take action that makes critical medications, including those for abortion, inaccessible.

The WHO has “experienced health care providers as well so I’m confident on what they put out with regards to safety of drugs,” Avelar said.

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled last year that a group suing to revoke FDA authorization for an abortion drug lacked standing.

State Rep. Bill Hauter, R-Morton, argued the legislation sets a dangerous precedent for health care regulation.

“There has to be some safety mechanisms, whether they be in the abortion clinic or with abortion medications,” Hauter said. “Do not reject the authority of the U.S. federal Food and Drug Administration. This is an important safety mechanism. This is unprecedented in my mind.”

Pritzker’s direct college admission plan

The House voted 102-2 on Monday to advance House Bill 3522, which would create a direct admission program that applies students for admission at most Illinois public colleges and universities at once, bypassing college application fees.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Illinois Chicago would not be included in the program.

The plan was proposed by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Students would have to “opt-in” to take part in the program and provide their contact information and GPAs to the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. The commission would then apply admission criteria from each university to find out at which universities the student qualifies for admission.

No coverage caps on general anesthesia

Hauter also is the sponsor of HB1141, which unanimously passed the House floor Monday. The bill would require all private insurance companies to cover the costs of medically necessary general anesthesia for the entire duration of a patient’s medical procedure.

“Patients have no control over the length of their surgery,” he said. “Physiologists have no control, or little control, and surgeons oftentimes have no control when they run into complications, abnormal anatomy or even malfunctioning equipment.”

The bill would ensure insurance companies can’t deny lengthy coverage in Illinois and continue the state’s status quo, Hauter said.

Blue Cross Blue Shield recently threatened to set a cap on the duration of medically necessary anesthesia in Missouri, New York and Connecticut in late 2024. After receiving nationwide backlash on the decision, the company changed course and never set a cap.

Student teacher stipend bill approved

A bill passed through the House Monday on a 78-23 vote that would allow student teachers to receive a stipend.

Student teaching is part of the requirements for a teaching license in Illinois.

The proposal passed the House in 2024 but didn’t become law.

The bill states eligible student teachers can be given “up to $10,000 per semester for two semesters” in educator preparation programs. Licensed cooperating teachers at public schools or early childhood education centers could separately get $2,000 per semester.

“We are in a dire situation, and we need teachers,” state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, said Monday on the House floor. “This is a barrier for those seeking licensure. It’s an expensive barrier to have to do your student teaching completely unpaid. This goes back to the history of the sexist nature of the fact that teachers tend to be overwhelmingly female.”

The bill’s main sponsor, state Rep. Barbara Hernandez, D-Aurora, said she’s aiming to get $10 million appropriated from the budget for this bill, but she’d prefer about $60 million.

In 2024, Hernandez pushed for a $68 million appropriation for the proposal but admitted at the time the bill was unlikely to receive that funding.

State. Rep. Fred Crespo, D-Hoffman Estates, warned that Pritzker said budget negotiations were going to be strict this year.

“You can ask for everything, you can’t have it all,” Crespo said. “We need to start prioritizing what we want; and at the end of the day, taxpayers are going to pay for this. And at this rate, we’re just going to run out of taxpayers’ dollars to spend.”

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.