Illinois officials have reaffirmed the state’s commitment to protecting access to life-saving emergency room treatment for pregnant women, following a controversial move by the Trump administration to rescind federal guidance requiring hospitals to provide abortions when medically necessary to save a patient’s life.
Governor JB Pritzker condemned the federal rollback, stating, “I have made protecting and expanding reproductive rights a top priority and in Illinois, providing the full range of reproductive care for anyone facing life-threatening emergencies is enshrined in state law,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “This cruel action by the Trump administration creates confusion for healthcare providers and is one more example of how the Dobbs decision has diminished maternal health and healthcare for all women across the country.”
The Illinois Hospital Emergency Services Act, recently amended by Public Act 103-0784, ensures that pregnant women in Illinois hospital emergency departments have access to all medically necessary, life-saving reproductive health care—including abortions. The amendment, passed in 2024, explicitly requires hospitals to provide such care and establishes penalties for noncompliance. The state’s Joint Committee on Administrative Rules (JCAR) has finalized the rules to implement the law.
This state-level action comes in response to the Trump administration’s Department of Health and Human Services rescinding guidance originally issued by the Biden administration after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. The Biden-era guidance clarified that the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) required hospitals to provide all available life-saving care to pregnant patients in emergencies.
“IDPH is working to ensure that all Illinois hospitals are informed and aware of their obligation under the Illinois Hospital Emergency Services Act,” said IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra. “Hospitals and health care providers have the responsibility to provide necessary healthcare to protect the life and health of everyone in a medical emergency, including abortions when warranted.”
On June 2, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) released a new practice advisory for physicians treating patients with prematurely ruptured membranes. The advisory shows that timely access to abortion can be critical to saving a mother’s life.
ACOG President Dr. Steven J. Fleischman wrote, “It’s never been more important for clinicians to have clear guidance on how to treat previable and periviable PPROM. This guidance is critical because it rightly affirms that abortion care should be offered to all patients experiencing previable and periviable PPROM,” said Steven J. Fleischman, MD, FACOG, president of ACOG. “While expectant management should remain an option for certain patients, the higher rates of morbidity associated with expectant management—which may be greater than previously reported—must be part of the conversations that we have with our patients as they are making their care decisions.”
