SPRINGFIELD – After a lengthy debate over an array of issues concerning the beginning of life, contraception, abortifacients and whether employers should be required to provide insurance coverage for all forms of prescription contraceptives, the Illinois House voted to pass HB 5576 with a 61 to 52 Thursday morning.
The sponsor and supporters pointed to the insensitivity of "white men" who opposed the legislation in House committee testimony because of the costs HB 5576 would add to employers' health care requirements. Both the state's Chamber of Commerce and several insurance companies opposed the legislation.
"Insult to injury came along when a panel of white men came along, saying how important it is to manage the costs of being inside my uterus," said openly-gay State Rep. Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago.) "It was jarring, quite frankly, that we are here in 2016, and I am still being told by a panel of white men what belongs in my body."
The bill's sponsor Elaine Nekritz (D-Chicago) said that despite arguments from the other side, her bill would not add anything federal law does not already require.
"We are simply making sure it is implemented in the way the Affordable Care intended," she said.
The McHenry County Right to Life said that HB 5576 greatly expands the definition of "contraceptives" and reproductive" medical procedures and will force employers and individual health insurance policy holders to pay for abortifacients (abortion-inducing drugs) and interfere with religious liberties as in the cases of Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor.
The bill's House sponsors are Rep. Elaine Nekritz – Litesa E. Wallace – Silvana Tabares, Sara Feigenholtz, Martin J. Moylan,Robyn Gabel, Jaime M. Andrade, Jr., Carol Ammons, Kelly M. Cassidy, Emanuel Chris Welch,Laura Fine, Robert Martwick, William Davis, Camille Y. Lilly, Will Guzzardi, Cynthia Soto, Elizabeth Hernandez, Anna Moeller, Christian L. Mitchell, Rita Mayfield, Scott Drury, Ann M. Williams, Linda Chapa LaVia, Natalie A. Manley, Daniel J. Burke, Luis Arroyo, Gregory Harris, Sam Yingling,Michelle Mussman, Sonya M. Harper, Carol Sente and Emily McAsey.
It is likely the bill will pass the Illinois Senate and it is unknown whether Governor Rauner will sign the bill into law.
