Illinois Choice Action Team
Illinois Choice Action Team
Take Action
You can help protect reproductive rights by sending letters to your elected officials. Click the name of each bill or topic to easily send a letter to your officials.
Illinois State Actions
Reproductive Justice and Access Act:
The Illinois Reproductive Justice and Access Act (HB 5615) has been introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives. The bill ensures that all people should have access to reproductive health care and services, which includes comprehensive sex education. This bill has a growing list of sponsors, but we need more. If your representative is not already supporting the bill, please ask them to sponsor HB 5615. Visit our page about this bill for more information and suggested text for a letter to your representative.
Federal Actions
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA):
If passed, this legislation will codify Roe v Wade and secure the right to choose by establishing a federal law that guarantees reproductive freedom for future generations of American women. For more information about this bill, click here.
Prevention Through Affordable Access Act:
Students and low-income women around the country have seen a dramatic increase in the price of their birth-control prescriptions. It’s the result of a 2005 bill that wasn’t even supposed to do what it did. Thanks to efforts by students on college campuses across the country, Congress has finally introduced a fix. And we need this bill to move quickly before more women are impacted by high prescription birth-control prices.
Prevention first:
This bill would help women prevent unintended pregnancy – which would reduce the need for abortion. The bill would increase funds for family-planning services, assuring contraceptive equity in health-insurance plans, and improving access to emergency contraception. For more information about this bill, click here.
Responsible Education About Life Act (REAL Act):
The REAL Act would establish the first-ever federal sex-education program for young people. There are three separate federal "abstinence-only" programs that by law must forbid discussion of contraception's benefits in preventing pregnancy – yet there is no similar program for honest sex education that teaches about both abstinence and birth control.
Access to Birth Control Act (ABC Act):
Women across America encounter pharmacists who refuse to fill their birth-control prescriptions or provide emergency contraception even though the medication is in stock. Some pharmacists even go so far as to lecture women, humiliate them in public, or refuse to hand back the prescription after they refuse to fill it. This bill would ensure that women have timely access to birth control, including emergency contraception, at the pharmacy counter. Though Illinois has more protections for women than many states, this would ensure access to contraception on a national level.
Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act (CARE):
Each year, approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant as a result of rape. This bill would ensure that survivors of sexual assault are offered emergency contraception in the emergency room.
Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC):
Shockingly, some health-insurance plans that cover prescription drugs refuse to cover prescription contraception. Consequently, women have to pay out-of-pocket for services that should be covered by insurance, and some women can't afford to pay full price. EPICC would ensure that prescription birth control is covered equally with other prescription drugs. It's been awaiting congressional action for nine years and has bipartisan support. Twenty-six states have enacted similar laws, as has Congress for federal employees. This bill would extend those protections to all women.
Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Responsibility, and Opportunity Act:
America has the highest teen-pregnancy rate of any developed Western country. This bill would help tackle this problem by educating teens about their risk of pregnancy, teaching them about the significant responsibilities that come with parenthood, keeping them on track in school, and helping parents discuss tough topics – like sex – with their kids.
Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act:
The number of military women who suffer sexual assault is outrageous. Yet emergency contraception (birth control that can prevent pregnancy after sex or sexual assault) is not automatically available to servicewomen at overseas bases. This legislation would ensure that military health-care facilities stock emergency contraception and make it available to servicewomen and military dependents upon request.
Defeat Honaker:
President Bush is at it again - he's trying to appoint a sworn enemy to a woman's right to choose for a lifetime job as a federal judge. We need to tell the Senate that Bush's nominee, Richard Honaker, is too extreme for a lifetime job as a federal judge.
Defeat Conrad:
President Bush has just made another anti-choice nomination - this time to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Among other evidence that Robert Conrad has no respect for a woman's right to control her own body, he has called Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group" that "promotes a radical abortion agenda". Please tell your Senators that Conrad does not speak for America and that he doesn't deserve a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.
You can help protect reproductive rights by sending letters to your elected officials. Click the name of each bill or topic to easily send a letter to your officials.
Illinois State Actions
Reproductive Justice and Access Act:
The Illinois Reproductive Justice and Access Act (HB 5615) has been introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives. The bill ensures that all people should have access to reproductive health care and services, which includes comprehensive sex education. This bill has a growing list of sponsors, but we need more. If your representative is not already supporting the bill, please ask them to sponsor HB 5615. Visit our page about this bill for more information and suggested text for a letter to your representative.
Federal Actions
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA):
If passed, this legislation will codify Roe v Wade and secure the right to choose by establishing a federal law that guarantees reproductive freedom for future generations of American women. For more information about this bill, click here.
Prevention Through Affordable Access Act:
Students and low-income women around the country have seen a dramatic increase in the price of their birth-control prescriptions. It’s the result of a 2005 bill that wasn’t even supposed to do what it did. Thanks to efforts by students on college campuses across the country, Congress has finally introduced a fix. And we need this bill to move quickly before more women are impacted by high prescription birth-control prices.
Prevention first:
This bill would help women prevent unintended pregnancy – which would reduce the need for abortion. The bill would increase funds for family-planning services, assuring contraceptive equity in health-insurance plans, and improving access to emergency contraception. For more information about this bill, click here.
Responsible Education About Life Act (REAL Act):
The REAL Act would establish the first-ever federal sex-education program for young people. There are three separate federal "abstinence-only" programs that by law must forbid discussion of contraception's benefits in preventing pregnancy – yet there is no similar program for honest sex education that teaches about both abstinence and birth control.
Access to Birth Control Act (ABC Act):
Women across America encounter pharmacists who refuse to fill their birth-control prescriptions or provide emergency contraception even though the medication is in stock. Some pharmacists even go so far as to lecture women, humiliate them in public, or refuse to hand back the prescription after they refuse to fill it. This bill would ensure that women have timely access to birth control, including emergency contraception, at the pharmacy counter. Though Illinois has more protections for women than many states, this would ensure access to contraception on a national level.
Compassionate Assistance for Rape Emergencies Act (CARE):
Each year, approximately 25,000 women in the United States become pregnant as a result of rape. This bill would ensure that survivors of sexual assault are offered emergency contraception in the emergency room.
Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (EPICC):
Shockingly, some health-insurance plans that cover prescription drugs refuse to cover prescription contraception. Consequently, women have to pay out-of-pocket for services that should be covered by insurance, and some women can't afford to pay full price. EPICC would ensure that prescription birth control is covered equally with other prescription drugs. It's been awaiting congressional action for nine years and has bipartisan support. Twenty-six states have enacted similar laws, as has Congress for federal employees. This bill would extend those protections to all women.
Teen Pregnancy Prevention, Responsibility, and Opportunity Act:
America has the highest teen-pregnancy rate of any developed Western country. This bill would help tackle this problem by educating teens about their risk of pregnancy, teaching them about the significant responsibilities that come with parenthood, keeping them on track in school, and helping parents discuss tough topics – like sex – with their kids.
Compassionate Care for Servicewomen Act:
The number of military women who suffer sexual assault is outrageous. Yet emergency contraception (birth control that can prevent pregnancy after sex or sexual assault) is not automatically available to servicewomen at overseas bases. This legislation would ensure that military health-care facilities stock emergency contraception and make it available to servicewomen and military dependents upon request.
Defeat Honaker:
President Bush is at it again - he's trying to appoint a sworn enemy to a woman's right to choose for a lifetime job as a federal judge. We need to tell the Senate that Bush's nominee, Richard Honaker, is too extreme for a lifetime job as a federal judge.
Defeat Conrad:
President Bush has just made another anti-choice nomination - this time to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Among other evidence that Robert Conrad has no respect for a woman's right to control her own body, he has called Planned Parenthood a "radical, pro-abortion fringe group" that "promotes a radical abortion agenda". Please tell your Senators that Conrad does not speak for America and that he doesn't deserve a lifetime appointment as a federal judge.
Know Your Rights
How much do you know about your reproductive rights in Illinois?
How much do you know about your reproductive rights in Illinois?
- Did you know that 90 percent of Illinois counties have no abortion provider?
- Did you know that Illinois guarantees that women's birth control prescriptions will be filled?
Click here to find out what else current Illinois law allows or prohibits.
Click here to find out what new legislation is currently being considered in Illinois that would affect your reproductive rights if it is passed.
The Illinois Choice Action Team works with other organizations to support and protect reproductive rights. Click to see information about some of the campaigns we are involved in.
