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.