Public Act 103-0270
 
SB1909 EnrolledLRB103 30707 LNS 57182 b

    AN ACT concerning civil law.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 1. Legislative intent. The laws and public policy
of this State have established the fundamental rights of
individuals to make autonomous decisions about their own
reproductive health, including the fundamental right to use or
refuse reproductive health care. It is also the public policy
of the State to ensure that patients receive timely access to
information and medically appropriate care and that consumers
are protected from deceptive and unfair practices. Despite
these laws, vulnerable State residents and nonresidents
seeking health care in this State have repeatedly been misled
by organizations and their agents purporting to provide
comprehensive reproductive health care services, but which, in
reality, aim to dissuade pregnant persons from considering
abortion care through deceptive, fraudulent, and misleading
information and practices, without any regard for a pregnant
person's concerns or circumstances. These organizations pay
for advertising, including online and on billboards and public
transportation, that is intended to attract consumers to their
organizations and away from medical providers that offer
comprehensive reproductive care. The advertisements and
information given by these organizations provide grossly
inaccurate or misleading information overstating the risks
associated with abortion, including conveying untrue claims
that abortion causes cancer or infertility and concealing data
that shows the risk of death associated with childbirth is
approximately 14 times higher than the risk of death
associated with an abortion. This misinformation is intended
to cause undue delays and disruption to protected,
time-sensitive, reproductive health care services, and the
State has an interest in preventing health risks and
associated costs caused and compounded by unnecessary delays
in obtaining life-changing or life-saving reproductive care.
Even when an organization offers free services, all of this
activity has a commercial and economic impact on where, when,
and how reproductive care is provided. The conduct of these
organizations has become increasingly aggressive following the
United States Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women's Health Organization, 142 S.Ct. 2228 (2022). The State
has an interest to protect against deceptive, fraudulent, and
misleading advertising and practices that interfere with an
individual's ability to make autonomous, informed, and
evidence-based decisions about the individual's reproductive
health and have timely access to quality reproductive health
care that adheres to accepted standards of medical practice or
care. The State also has an interest to protect against
deceptive and unfair practices affecting trade and commerce,
to ensure a free, open, and fair marketplace for all
marketplace participants. At the same time, it is the public
policy of the State to respect the right to hold and express
deeply held beliefs about abortion so long as fraud,
deception, and misleading practices are not employed to
interfere with or prevent another from accessing comprehensive
reproductive health care. It is not the intention of this Act
to regulate, limit, or curtail the ability to counsel against
abortion if an organization and its agents are otherwise
operating in compliance with the law.
 
    Section 5. The Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business
Practices Act is amended by adding Section 2BBBB as follows:
 
    (815 ILCS 505/2BBBB new)
    Sec. 2BBBB. Deceptive practices related to limited
services pregnancy centers.
    (a) As used in this Section:
    "Abortion" means the use of any instrument, medicine,
drug, or any other substance or device to terminate the
pregnancy of an individual known to be pregnant with an
intention other than to increase the probability of a live
birth, to preserve the life or health of the child after live
birth, or to remove a dead fetus, as defined in Section 1-10 of
the Reproductive Health Act.
    "Affiliates" has the meaning given to the term "hospital
affiliate" as defined in subsection (b) of Section 10.8 of the
Hospital Licensing Act.
    "Emergency contraception" means one or more prescription
drugs (i) used separately or in combination for the purpose of
preventing pregnancy, (ii) administered to or
self-administered by a patient within a medically recommended
amount of time after sexual intercourse, and (iii) dispensed
for such purpose in accordance with professional standards of
practice.
    "Limited services pregnancy center" means an organization
or facility, including a mobile facility, that:
        (1) does not directly provide abortions or provide or
    prescribe emergency contraception, or provide referrals
    for abortions or emergency contraception, and has no
    affiliation with any organization or provider who provides
    abortions or provides or prescribes emergency
    contraception; and
        (2) has a primary purpose to offer or provide
    pregnancy-related services to an individual who is or has
    reason to believe the individual may be pregnant, whether
    or not a fee is charged for such services.
"Limited services pregnancy center" does not include:
        (1) a health care professional licensed by the
    Department of Financial and Professional Regulation;
        (2) a hospital licensed under the Hospital Licensing
    Act and its affiliates; or
        (3) a hospital licensed under the University of
    Illinois Hospital Act and its affiliates.
"Limited services pregnancy center" includes an organization
or facility that has employees, volunteers, or agents who are
health care professionals licensed by the Department of
Financial and Professional Regulation.
    "Pregnancy-related services" means any medical service, or
health counseling service, related to the prevention,
preservation, or termination of pregnancy, including, but not
limited to, contraception and contraceptive counseling,
pregnancy testing, pregnancy diagnosis, pregnancy options
counseling, limited obstetric ultrasound, obstetric
ultrasound, obstetric sonogram, sexually transmitted
infections testing, and prenatal care.
    (b) A limited services pregnancy center shall not engage
in unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts
or practices, including the use or employment of any
deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, or
misrepresentation, or the concealment, suppression, or
omission of any material fact, with the intent that others
rely upon the concealment, suppression, or omission of such
material fact:
        (1) to interfere with or prevent an individual from
    seeking to gain entry or access to a provider of abortion
    or emergency contraception;
        (2) to induce an individual to enter or access the
    limited services pregnancy center;
        (3) in advertising, soliciting, or otherwise offering
    pregnancy-related services; or
        (4) in conducting, providing, or performing
    pregnancy-related services.
    (c) A violation of this Section constitutes a violation of
this Act.
 
    Section 97. Severability. The provisions of this Act are
severable under Section 1.31 of the Statute on Statutes.
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.