Illinois Doubles Down on Abortion Extremism, Forces Colleges to Offer Abortion Pills
The same pills under FDA review for inflicting serious harm on more than one-in-10 women.
As if anyone needed a reminder, Illinois Democrats are proving once again how little they value human life.
A new law signed by Gov. JB Pritzker on Aug. 22 requires all public colleges with on-campus pharmacies to offer abortion pills. Those that do not have pharmacies but offer student health services must still make chemical abortionists accessible to students via on-campus services, telehealth, or "other external licensed providers."
In other words, Illinois taxpayers now facilitate the killing of unborn babies on college campuses, whether they want to or not.
The new law, H.B. 3709, also mandates that public college pharmacies offer birth control pills.
The law's conception followed a February 2024 student referendum at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in which 74.7 percent of participating students voted in favor of allowing campus health centers to dispense abortion drugs.
Awais Vaid, executive health director at the university's McKinley Health Center, responded to the vote by noting that his staff were insufficiently trained to offer abortion services—services that were already widely available in the local area.
“One thing which was a little bit of a disappointment for me is the student group that put this on the ballot—they should have had a conversation with us before they put this on the ballot, so that we could have had a conversation about what our limitations are, what our resources are and the fact that access is not an issue in our community,” Vaid told Illinois Public Media at the time.
Those pesky details were not a good enough excuse for Pritzker and the state's Democrat-controlled legislature stepped in.
The governor signed the bill at a ceremony on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, during which he also approved a measure that would keep chemical abortion legal in the state if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should deem the regimen unsafe.
"As an anti-woman, anti-science, authoritarian administration invades our privacy, Illinois is holding the line and we are fighting back," Pritzker said at a press conference.
I made a promise to the women of Illinois — as governor, I will ensure your medical decisions will be your own.
— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) August 23, 2025
Now, we continue fulfilling that promise.
Public colleges will now provide contraception and medication abortion at on-campus pharmacies and student health centers. pic.twitter.com/aSa9cS723L
(RELATED: List of Women Hurt by Abortion Pill Grows as America Awaits FDA Action)
A Dangerous Drug
What Pritzker failed to mention is that chemical abortion carries a serious adverse event risk of nearly 11 percent, according to two recent studies of medical insurance claims data by the Restoration of America Foundation (ROAF) and the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). Such complications may include hospitalization, blood transfusions, sepsis, hemorrhage, infection, uterine rupture, ruptured ectopic pregnancy, and even death.
At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Sep. 4, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. revealed that the Biden FDA "twisted the data" on mifepristone, the first drug in the chemical abortion regimen, to bury "a very high safety signal, around about 11 percent."
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed to Restoration News that the secretary was referencing the serious adverse event rate uncovered by ROAF and the EPPC.
🚨The Biden administration twisted the data on mifepristone to bury safety concerns.
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) September 4, 2025
Thank you, @SecKennedy, for committing to fixing this problem, protecting women and girls, and staying true to the science. pic.twitter.com/cbW3E8Gdpi
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, under Kennedy's direction, is reviewing mifepristone's safety and efficacy. If the drug is found to be unsafe, as the latest studies suggest, the agency could pull the drug from the market.
At the very least, pro-life groups say the FDA should restore its prior restrictions on the drug, which initially required women to obtain it in person and take it under the supervision of a licensed physician. Now, thanks to the Biden FDA's removal of the in-person dispensation requirement in late 2021, women can order the drugs online without even consulting a physician.
The dangers of that possibility are significant. An ultrasound is needed to accurately date a pregnancy, and mifepristone is only FDA-approved for terminating pregnancies up to 10 weeks along. As a pregnancy progresses, the likelihood of serious complications increases.
An ultrasound is also crucial for ruling out an ectopic pregnancy, which could be fatal if left untreated.
“As women and children are harmed, these dangerous drugs continue to be bought and sold with no commonsense safeguards and no accountability. Enough is enough," Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a press statement.
Pritzker, however, appears unconcerned by the evidence that suggests his position is the one that is "anti-woman" and "anti-science."
Abortion is the Left's golden cow, after all. And with 2028 just around the corner, he's going to milk that cow for all it's worth.
(READ MORE: Time to Face the Truth about Mifepristone)
