RHAA

The Reproductive Health and Access Act (RHAA) – HB 6205 – is legislation that assures all people in Illinois a continuum of information and choices throughout their reproductive lives including, responsible sexual health education, access to the full range of birth control options and prenatal care, and the right to choose abortion.  This is a bill about comprehensive reproductive health care for everyone.

WHAT DOES THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & ACCESS ACT DO?

This bill will ensure that every person in Illinois has information about and access to as many responsible options as possible when it comes to making important personal decisions about their reproductive health care.

Comprehensive Sexual Health Education

The bill requires all Illinois public schools to teach medically accurate, age appropriate, comprehensive sexual health education that gives young women and men the information and skills they need to make responsible decisions throughout their lives. Currently, public schools are not required to teach comprehensive sexual health education in our state.  Under RHAA, Illinois parents retain the right to remove their children from classes if they do not want them to participate.

Non-discrimination in Funding

RHAA protects individuals from financial discrimination by ensuring that individuals eligible for state Medicaid assistance have access to a full range of reproductive health care. The bill also makes sure that government-funded health care programs, like Medicaid, continue to cover basic reproductive health care services like family planning, prenatal care, and pap tests as they do for other health care services.

Prohibition of Interference

This bill guarantees everyone the ability to use or refuse contraception and to control their own reproductive health without government interference.  And, it ensures that every woman is able to make her own personal decisions about when and whether to have a child without interference.

Pregnancy Termination

The bill requires abortions to be performed in accordance with accepted standards of medical practice, by the method that, in the clinical judgment of the attending medical professional, best serves the interests of the pregnant patient. Abortions would be banned after viability except to save the life or health of the woman and abortion providers would continue to be regulated under the Illinois’ licensing and regulatory scheme as are all healthcare providers.

WHY DO WE NEED THE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH & ACCESS ACT IN ILLINOIS?

In Illinois:

Decades of attacks by ideologically-driven politicians and organizations have severely limited the capacity of men and women in Illinois and across the nation to access a range of information and services related to basic reproductive health care. As a result of limitations on basic curriculum on reproductive health care issues in public schools and bans and government-imposed obstacles to particular reproductive medications and health care procedures, people of all ages must navigate a complex lifetime of decisions about reproductive health care without complete information and without access to such care in a fair, non-discriminatory fashion.

National Health Care:

The recent national health care debate underscores this concern – with legislators of both parties seeking to assure that efforts to expand basic access to health care actually reduce access to some reproductive health care services.  The 2010 Reproductive Health and Access Act seeks to reverse this disturbing trend in Illinois by assuring that all persons in our state – men and women, regardless of economic standing – have access to basic information about reproductive health care and the ability to access such services without undue obstacles created by politicians.

WHY HB 6205?

This legislation reiterates and re-emphasizes that reproductive health care is part of basic health care, and that decisions related to all health care must be left to an individual and his or her physician, not to politicians without any medical training.