SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Celina Villanueva championed a newly signed law to continue to support reproductive health care, as anti-choice action threatens to infringe on people’s rights.

“These persistent anti-choice attacks are intolerable and protections are absolutely necessary,” said Villanueva (D – Chicago). “Women throughout Illinois and beyond have a constitutional right to access vital life-saving care and medically necessary services.”

House Bill 581 protects Illinois patients from another pending Supreme Court rollback of reproductive rights by ensuring Illinois hospitals must provide any medically necessary services—including abortion services—to stabilize a patient at risk of severe injury or death. 

Villanueva’s measure came as the Supreme Court heard Moyle v. Idaho. This case questioned whether Idaho’s total abortion ban is exempt from the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Idaho argued that it should be exempt, which would have undermined critical patient protections in cases of severe pregnancy complications. The Supreme Court dismissed the case – putting it back in the hands of Idaho’s Ninth Circuit Court. However, it is expected the case will once again be heard before SCOTUS in the future – further securing the need for Illinois to ensure these protections remain in place and impose civil penalties on hospitals that refuse to provide lifesaving abortion procedures through House Bill 581.

“Maintaining and reinforcing measures that ensure the well-being and inalienable rights of women in Illinois will always be a priority,” said Villanueva. “By strengthening our reproductive health care laws to support the delicate process of bringing life into this world we are able to protect women in a nation that is committed to denying our rights.”

House Bill 581 was signed into law Wednesday and is effective immediately.