Democrat Gov. JB Pritzker (IL) signed a bill earlier this month to mandate all state colleges and universities provide students access to the highly controversial abortion pill called mifepristone.
Pritzker said the bill — and another similarly extreme pro-abortion bill — are necessary to combat “anti-choice extremists” and advance “health care” for Illinois residents.
HB3709 “requires public universities in Illinois to offer students access to contraception and medication abortion on campus, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year,” a press release from Gov. Pritzker’s office says.
“Amending the Public Higher Education Act, HB3709 mandates that state colleges and universities must offer consultation appointments with health care professionals who can provide and dispense contraception and medication abortion to students,” the press release adds. “Further, schools with on-campus pharmacies must be able to dispense contraception and the abortion pill to students.”
The Democrat governor also signed HB3637, which would allow mifepristone for residents, even if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deems the pill unsafe.
The bill specifically amends the state’s Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act so “medication that was previously approved by the FDA whose approval was revoked but is still considered effective by the World Health Organization (WHO), will not be considered in violation of the Act,” Pritzker’s office said. “This means that health care providers will not be violating Illinois law by prescribing drugs that are widely considered safe and effective but have had their FDA approvals revoked for political reasons—as anti-choice political have sought for mifepristone, the drug commonly used in medication abortions.”
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“As governor, I will ensure that your medical decisions will be your own,” Pritzker said on August 22, the day he signed the bills. “I’m proud to be taking these steps, but I will not rest on this. Because we know that anti-choice extremists won’t. We will continue to activate and protest and march and deliver until every woman in this state gets the health care she deserves.”
Mifepristone, which is usually followed by misoprostol, aims to end the life of the unborn baby and expel it from the woman’s uterus. However, the drugs sometimes fail to expel all the fetal tissue, which can cause life-threatening complications. The safety of the drug has become a key issue in the fight over abortion and women’s safety.
An analysis released in April found that more than one in 10 women experienced a “serious adverse event” after taking the mifepristone abortion pill in 2023. This can include hemorrhaging, needing a blood transfusion, an emergency room visit, and even deadly conditions like sepsis.
That is about 22 times higher than what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed on its label for the brand Mifeprex in 2023. The FDA cited clinical studies saying fewer than 0.5% of women suffered “serious adverse reactions” to mifepristone.
Back in June, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary committed to reviewing the pill.
“As the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, I am committed to conducting a review of mifepristone and working with the professional career scientists at the Agency who review this data,” Makary wrote in a letter to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). “As with all drugs, FDA continues to closely monitor the postmarketing safety data on mifepristone for the medical termination of early pregnancy.”
Mairead Elordi contributed to this report.
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